A Metro Vancouver Transit Police vehicle photographed in July 2024. Transit police initially investigated the April 2023 Surrey knife attack before the case was transferred to federal national-security investigators. This file photo does not show the incident.
Photo credit: Kyah117
SURREY — Abdul Aziz Kawam has been sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison for terrorism-related offences stemming from a 2023 knife attack at a Surrey bus stop and aboard a transit bus.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada said the B.C. Supreme Court imposed a 15-year sentence for attempted murder and a consecutive 20-month sentence for an assault offence on October 29. The prosecution service said Kawam was convicted June 30, 2025.
According to the RCMP, the attack occurred April 1, 2023, when Kawam threatened and chased a man with a knife at a Surrey bus stop. The man escaped, but police said Kawam then boarded a Coast Mountain transit bus and seriously injured another person. Officers arrested Kawam, and an investigation initially handled by Metro Vancouver Transit Police was transferred to the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team.
Federal prosecutors said the court found Kawam's actions were intended to advance the objectives of the Islamic State, and that the attack was carried out for the benefit of, at the direction of and in association with the terrorist group.
The RCMP said Kawam had spent three years and seven months in pre-sentence custody, for which he was credited with five years and four months.
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