A heartbreaking video featuring a mother's message to her son who died fighting for the Islamic State is part of a new program to fight the radicalization of Canadian youth.
Christianne Boudreau's voice wavers slightly as she recounts how her little boy became an ISIS militant. Every word seems tinged with anger and regret, but most of all, purpose.
The process of radicalization is gradual and persuasive, she said. And deadly. Her son, who joined ISIS's ranks in Syria, was killed in fighting there more than a year ago.
"It's so easy for them to get to our children, to access our children," she said.
"Here we are today. We have no body. No way of touching you one more time. No way to look at you and say goodbye," says the Calgary woman as she looks directly into the camera in the 10-minute video.
"Why couldn't you come home once you saw how it was? Why didn't you come home? How do we live our life knowing some of the things that you may have done?"
Boudreau is now lending her support and voice to two organizations trying to combat radicalization. Hayat Canada and ExtremeDialogue.org are two new online resources for parents, teachers and communities to help counter extremist messages and recruitment.
"The way a lot of it happens is one main recruiter plants the ideology in their mind and the Internet reinforces that with the information that they can search up and other contacts that they can make easily online," Boudreau said.
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