Abdul Aziz Kawam was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison for stabbing and attempting to kill two men in Surrey on April 1, 2023.
The Story
Abdul Aziz Kawam, 30, has been sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison following a knife attack on a Surrey transit bus in 2023.
The attack began April 1, 2023, at a bus stop near Fraser Highway and 156th Street. Kawam assaulted a man with a knife, and both men survived. Kawam then boarded a bus and slashed another passenger in the throat.
Admissions submitted at trial stated Kawam intended to kill the second victim. During the assault, the victim used his body to push Kawam out of the bus as passengers screamed on the security video that was later released in court proceedings.
Crown and the defence had sought different sentences. The Crown asked for 20 years, while the defence suggested seven. Kawam received a total sentence of 16 years and eight months.
The sentencing included credit for time spent in custody since April 2023, leaving him just over 11 years to serve.
Prosecution evidence described injuries sustained during the bus attack. The knife nicked the victim’s vocal cords and missed the main artery by a millimetre, according to information provided through court-admitted materials.
Oren Bick, general counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said the victim “likely saved the lives of other people on that bus with his ability to defend himself so quickly and stay calm and collected and get Mr. Kawam off the bus and it’s likely a credit to him that no one else was injured.”
Bick also described the lead-up to the first stabbing, saying Kawam initially approached the first victim and asked, “Are you Muslim?” When the man replied “No,” Kawam returned to the bus stop, prayed for about two minutes, and then attacked him.
The court also heard details about the victims’ descriptions of the weapon and the resulting events. One admissions statement said the second victim was able to run and call 911 from a gas station nearby after escaping.
Kawam was convicted on June 30, 2025, of attempted murder and assault with a weapon for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a terrorist group: the Islamic State.
The identity of the second victim remains protected by a publication ban.
← More stories