In a legal first, a Toronto teen has been charged with terrorism for his alleged support of the misogynist “incel ideology” in the daylight stabbing death of a 24-year-old woman at a North York massage parlour earlier this year.

In a legal first and a “significant moment” in Canadian national security, the February stabbing death of a 24-year-old woman at a North York massage parlour is now being treated as an act of terrorism after investigators determined it was allegedly inspired by the misogynistic “incel” ideology.

“Terrorism comes in many forms and it’s important to note that it is not restricted to any particular group, religion or ideology,” the RCMP said in a joint statement with Toronto police Tuesday.

The 17-year-old accused, who cannot be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was originally charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder after the Feb. 24 stabbing at Crown Spa, an erotic massage parlour on Dufferin Street between Wilson Avenue and Highway 401.

Both charges were upgraded to include “terrorist activity” inside a Toronto courtroom on Tuesday after homicide investigators allegedly uncovered evidence linking the attack to the “incel” movement, short for “involuntarily celibate,” now defined by the RCMP as an “ideologically motivated violent extremist movement.”

The charges are being hailed as a “significant moment” in Canadian national security because they are the first recognition that an act of violence doesn’t have to be linked to al-Qaida or the Islamic State to be considered terrorism, said Stephanie Carvin, former national security analyst and assistant professor at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

“This sends a signal to society that violent extremism doesn’t just come from one kind of ideological belief — that there are many that we worry about,” Carvin said.

“This is a big deal.”

RCMP Sgt. Penny Hermann said the 17-year-old is believed to the first person charged under federal anti-terrorism laws over an attack allegedly motivated by incel groups, which have been linked to several other violent incidents, including the 2018 Yonge Street van attack.

Officers arrived shortly before 1 p.m. on Feb. 24 to find a man and a woman suffering from multiple cuts outside the building. Found inside was the body of North York mother Ashley Noell Arzaga, 24, who was described as a “loving mother, daughter, sister, cousin and friend” in an online fundraiser posted soon after her death.

She left behind a five-year-old daughter “who will sadly have to grow up missing her wonderful mommy,” the fundraiser said.

As homicide investigators began probing the attack, they uncovered evidence it potentially could be defined by law as a “terrorist activity,” and brought in an officer from the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET). Police did not reveal any details on Tuesday about the nature of that evidence.

“Good partnerships and interagency co-operation have led us to today’s outcome. The Toronto Police Service is commended for their thorough investigation into this tragic event,” Supt. Christopher deGale, the head of INSET, said in a statement.

Incels are a largely online group of sexually frustrated, angry young men, some of whom have called for violence against women after being radicalized online. Experts have identified the group as a growing security threat.

Alek Minassian, the driver who killed 10 pedestrians and injured more than a dozen others in the Yonge Street van attack, told a Toronto police officer soon after his arrest that he had hoped to spark an “incel uprising.”

Shortly before the attack, Minassian also made a cryptic Facebook post referencing a 2014 stabbing attack near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in which a 22-year-old man killed six people and injured 13 others before apparently killing himself.

Minassian told the officer that he respected for the man behind that attack, whom he called the “founding forefather” of the incel “movement.”

Minassian, who was not charged with terror offences, is facing 10 counts of first-murder and 16 counts of attempted murder. His trial has been delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. His trial is expected to centre on his state of mind before and during the attack.

Material linked to the Santa Barbara killing was also found within the digital files of Faisal Hussain, who killed Julianna Kozis, 10, and Reese Fallon, 18, and injured 13 others when he opened fire on Danforth Avenue in July 2018, before fatally shooting himself. At the time, Toronto police said Hussain had no affiliation with any radical ideology or terrorist organizations.

Carvin said Tuesday’s terrorism charges are significant symbolically and practically because they send the message that incels can both be defined as terrorism — and, crucially, that people must take the threat seriously.

Right now, people may laugh off the threat of incels, she said, adding that although some who identify as incels are not violent, there are others who turn to violence and want to mobilize others to do the same — and people must be on the look out to prevent future attacks.

“If people are aware that this is an ideology that has inspired violence, they may be more willing to go to the authorities or people they trust and say, you know, ‘I’m a little concerned,’” she said.

Nicolette Little, a critical media studies instructor at the University of Calgary whose research includes the incel movement, called Tuesday’s upgraded charges “a significant step forward.”

Until recently, attacks by people of colour or certain faiths have been more readily dubbed terrorist acts while extreme misogynist violence perpetuated by white men is often attributed to mental health issues, she said. This framing detracts from the reality that extreme anti-woman hate “exists right here, at ‘home’, in North America,” she said.

“By calling these acts ‘terrorism’ we are beginning to shift the narrative and recognize a problem for what it is,” Little said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which analyzes U.S. crime trends, began tracking incels as a hate ideology in 2018 and considers them part of the “online male supremacist ecosystem.”

A recent paper in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism found the incel ideology has been marked by “increasingly serious incidents of violence” committed by young men mostly in the United States and Canada.

Those attacks have included a “series of shootings and vehicular homicides that have occurred at universities, high schools, and on city streets,” the authors write.

The authors continue: “Although, the incel world view is not obviously political, its core ethos entails the subjugation and repression of a group and its violence is designed to have far-reaching societal effects. Accordingly, incel violence arguably conforms to an emergent trend in terrorism with a more salient hate crime dimension that necessitates greater scrutiny and analysis.”