The worries about a suspect in a terror investigation seen posing for a selfie last year with the prime minister go far beyond the anxiety of how he got that close. 
 
 A joint CBC News/Radio-Canada investigation has learned that the man is one of at least four Quebec men of interest to the RCMP for their alleged connection to the 2012 kidnappings of two Americans in Syria. 
 
 The man in the selfie, in his mid-20s, is believed to be on a U.S. no-fly list. His home was raided by police as part of a terror investigation a few months before Dec. 18, 2015, when the selfie was taken. The man was part of a crowd of people who took turns posing with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following a Radio-Canada interview in Montreal. 
 
 Police have interviewed others in the group and seized electronics and Canadian passports held by some of them. 
 
 None of them has been charged with a crime, and CBC is not identifying them. 
 
 Men were at Montreal firing range 
 
 CBC has been in contact with two of the men, who are going about their lives in Quebec. Sources have indicated that the other two may be overseas, possibly in Syria or Turkey. 
 
 CBC has repeatedly asked CSIS and the RCMP about the travels and status of the men. Both agencies have declined to provide details. 
 
 The questions keep piling up about just what they may have done or may still be doing. 
 
 The names of the men in the group appear repeatedly in logs from a Montreal rifle range. While the RCMP has seized some of the logs, CBC has obtained others. They show repeated entries from up to nine men, in 2012, in the months just before a few of them were thought to have left for Syria, including the man in the selfie. 
 
 The men appear to all be there at the invitation of another Montreal man known to police. 
 
 Kidnappers believed to be Canadian 
 
 If it all sounds tangled, that's because it is. 
 
 The kidnappings in Syria, of Americans Matt Schrier and Theo Padnos, especially so. 
 
 Schrier, a journalist, had been taking photos of the deadly conflict in Syria and was finally heading back to the United States on New Year's Eve 2012. 
 
 That's when his taxi was ambushed near the border with Turkey. It was men from the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra who had taken him. 
 
 Canadian links to kidnapping of Matthew Schrier in Syria1:00 
 
 For the next seven months — until he managed to escape — he was beaten and tortured and moved from one makeshift jail to another. 
 
 In the winter of 2013 there was a series of strange encounters. Three masked, armed men repeatedly interrogated him and squeezed him for banking and email passwords. 
 
 He didn't know it at the time, but those interrogators were using that information to rack up thousands of dollars in purchases on Schrier's accounts. 
 
 Those interrogators, Schrier and fellow captive Theo Padnos were certain, were Canadian. 
 
 The accents gave them away. 
 
 Accents give Canadian captors away0:56 
 
 "Theo knew where they were from," Schrier told CBC News in an interview last year. "Theo grew up in Vermont, right on the border, and he knew. As soon as he came back he was like, 'They're Canadians,' so I was like, yeah, right. He's like, 'No, they're Canadians … I know they're Canadians.' And he was right." 
 
 Receipts bore Montreal address 
 
 Nearly a year later, back safely at home, Schrier began going through his old emails. That's when he found the receipts for those goods bought while he was still a captive: tablet computers, boots, car parts, camera equipment. He got in touch with CBC News right away because some of those receipts showed purchases shipped to an address in Montreal. 
 
 That address is where the man in the selfie lived. 
 
 The receipt was made out to the man's roommate, who is one of the men of concern to police in connection with the kidnappings. 
 
 Logs from a Montreal firing range, above, show that some of the men of interest to the RCMP had been there on several occasions in the spring of 2012. Names have been blurred to protect privacy. (CBC/Radio-Canada) 
 
 Last year, CBC went to find the man named in the receipt and caught up with him. He wasn't alone: the selfie-taker was with him. 
 
 The exchange was brief; neither man wanted to talk. The man from the selfie left relatively soon after the camera appeared. 
 
 There was a fast-walking, fast-talking conversation with the other man, who was trying to hide his face and dismissed questions about Schrier and about the receipts bearing his name. 
 
 Canadians siphoned thousands of dollars from accounts3:29 
 
 This all exhausts and infuriates Schrier. 
 
 "I would like the Canadian authorities to prove they aren't on the leash of the FBI. Go do something," he told CBC with no small measure of anger. 
 
 Schrier is a man who saved his own life. And he says he feels like he has had to conduct his own investigation. The abandonment he felt in Syria matched, perhaps, by a feeling of abandonment back at home. 
 
 What he wants is justice. If his kidnappers are among the Canadians in this group, he wants them to be held accountable. And he cannot fathom why, with the evidence he has of at least a tangential connection to his kidnapping, arrests have not been made. 
 
 If that isn't a disturbing enough tale for the Canadian authorities, perhaps seeing the selfie with the prime minister is. ||||| À première vue, le cliché n'a rien de particulier. Une photo comme on en voit des milliers sur les réseaux sociaux, montrant le premier ministre du Canada tout sourire en compagnie d'un électeur. 
 
 Sauf que l'homme qui pose à côté de Justin Trudeau n'est pas n'importe quel électeur. Il fait l'objet d'une enquête de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC), qui le soupçonne d'avoir participé, en compagnie d'autres Québécois, à la prise en otage de deux journalistes américains en Syrie en 2013, orchestrée par le Front Al-Nosra, un groupe lié à Al-Qaïda. Malgré cela, il a pu s'approcher de M. Trudeau durant assez longtemps pour prendre un égoportrait avec le chef d'État. 
 
 La Presse a choisi de ne pas nommer le suspect, puisque nous sommes incapables, à ce moment-ci de notre enquête, de confirmer son niveau d'implication dans les événements survenus en Syrie et puisqu'il ne fait l'objet d'aucune accusation criminelle. 
 
 Le jeune résidant de la région de Montréal fait partie d'une première vague de personnes soupçonnées d'être des aspirants djihadistes partis en 2012. Il a voyagé en Turquie durant plusieurs mois en 2012 et en 2013, mais rien ne prouve qu'il a traversé la frontière syrienne. Deux sources bien au fait de son dossier, mais qui ne sont pas autorisées à parler publiquement, affirment que l'homme n'adhère plus du tout à l'idéologie islamiste depuis son retour au pays et qu'il est un véritable «success story» en matière de réintégration. Il a fondé une famille. Il va à l'école. Il dénonce publiquement les idées extrémistes. 
 
 «Il ne devrait pas avoir accès» 
 
 Mais le simple fait qu'une personne faisant l'objet d'une enquête antiterroriste ait pu se trouver aussi près du chef du gouvernement soulève de nombreuses questions, tant sur la sécurité du premier ministre que sur le niveau de surveillance dont font l'objet les Canadiens soupçonnés d'avoir participé au djihad en Syrie. 
 
 «On a un premier ministre qui prône beaucoup l'ouverture. Mais ce gars-là ne devrait pas avoir accès. Je ne veux pas blâmer le travail qui a été fait, mais ça montre qu'il n'y a pas de surveillance sur cet individu, que les gens autour du premier ministre n'ont pas été avertis», note Paul Laurier, ancien enquêteur antiterroriste de la Sûreté du Québec, qui a aussi travaillé pour l'Équipe intégrée de la sécurité nationale de la GRC. 
 
 Pourtant, note l'expert, en plus des gardes du corps qui assurent sa protection rapprochée, une équipe de policiers spécialistes du renseignement est chargée d'étudier les menaces potentielles envers M. Trudeau. 
 
 Soupçonné de prise d'otages 
 
 Les allégations qui pèsent sur l'homme de l'égoportrait sont sérieuses. En juin 2015, deux ans après son retour de Turquie, la GRC a mené une perquisition au domicile de ses parents en lien avec l'enlèvement des journalistes américains Matthew Schrier et Theo Padnos, détenus contre leur gré en Syrie, l'un durant sept mois et l'autre, pendant deux ans. 
 
 Officiellement, le suspect était en Turquie, tout près de la frontière syrienne, pendant une partie de leur incarcération. 
 
 Dans des mandats de perquisition signés par un juge de paix, la police dit croire que le Québécois a commis plusieurs infractions à caractère terroriste: avoir participé à un enlèvement, extorsion et fraude au profit d'un groupe terroriste, notamment. La validité de ces allégations n'a pas été testée devant le tribunal. 
 
 Selon nos informations, le nom du suspect figure sur la liste d'interdiction de vol du gouvernement des États-Unis. 
 
 Il a eu énormément de difficulté à regagner le Canada en 2013 pour cette raison. Avant de partir en Turquie, en 2012, il s'entraînait dans un champ de tir et tenait des propos jugés inquiétants qui ont attiré l'attention des autorités. 
 
 Malgré cela, le 18 décembre 2015, à peine six mois après la perquisition chez ses parents, il se prenait en égoportrait avec Justin Trudeau. 
 
 Avec un autre suspect 
 
 Ce jour-là, le nouveau premier ministre accordait une entrevue à Patrice Roy, de Radio-Canada, pour faire le bilan de ses premiers mois au pouvoir. La rencontre avait lieu à la station de métro Place-des-Arts, où le chef d'État répondait à des questions impromptues du public. 
 
 À la fin de l'entretien, Patrice Roy a amené M. Trudeau sur la Place des festivals. C'est là que le jeune homme a pu se frayer un chemin jusqu'au politicien entouré de ses gardes du corps, qui se prêtait déjà au jeu de l'égoportrait avec des passants. Fait à noter: il était accompagné d'un autre suspect dans l'histoire de l'enlèvement. Ce dernier ne s'est toutefois pas fait photographier avec le politicien. 
 
 Rien n'indique que le jeune homme avait une intention malveillante lorsqu'il s'est immortalisé avec le premier ministre, qu'il louange régulièrement sur sa page Facebook. 
 
 C'est par hasard qu'il aurait croisé la route de Justin Trudeau. 
 
 Dans une vidéo de l'entrevue diffusée par Radio-Canada, on voit le suspect qui marche parmi la foule de curieux et qui tente de se frayer un chemin. C'est une fois l'entrevue terminée que le jeune homme a pris sa photo. Il n'a pas été dérangé par les autorités en place. Personne n'a tenté de l'intercepter. 
 
 Ce n'est que quelques jours plus tard, après avoir publié le cliché sur sa page Facebook, qu'il a reçu la visite de la GRC. Selon nos informations, les enquêteurs souhaitaient savoir pourquoi il s'était trouvé dans l'entourage du premier ministre. 
 
 Jointe par La Presse, la GRC a refusé de répondre à nos questions, indiquant qu'elles « touchent des enquêtes encore en cours ». 
 
 Le cabinet du premier ministre n'a pas souhaité commenter l'affaire, nous dirigeant plutôt vers la GRC. ||||| The young resident of a suburb south of Montreal has not been charged with any crime. He travelled to Turkey for several months in 2012 and 2013, but there is no proof that he crossed the border into Syria. 
 
 La Presse has chosen not to name the suspect, because it is not possible at this stage in the investigation to confirm his level of involvement in events that occurred in Syria. 
 
 Despite this, he was able to get close enough to Trudeau for long enough to take a selfie with the prime minister. 
 
 What’s different is that the man posing beside Justin Trudeau is not just an average voter. He is the subject of an RCMP investigation, suspected of having participated along with other Quebecers in the kidnapping of two American journalists in Syria in 2013, an incident believed to have been orchestrated by the al-Nusra Front, a group linked to Al Qaeda. 
 
 At first glance, nothing stands out about the picture. A photograph like the thousands of others seen on social media, showing the prime minister smiling in the company of a voter. 
 
 But the simple fact that a person who is the subject of a terrorism investigation could find himself so close to Trudeau raises numerous questions, not only about the security of the prime minister but the level of surveillance placed on those Canadians suspected of having waged jihad in Syria. 
 
 He has started a family. He goes to school. He has publicly denounced extremist ideas. Everything indicates that he had no malicious intent when he took a selfie with the prime minister, someone he regularly praises on his Facebook page. It was just chance that he crossed paths with Trudeau. 
 
 Two sources with knowledge of the case, but who are not authorized to speak publicly, said the man no longer follows radical Islamist ideology since his return to Canada, and that his reintegration has been a success story. 
 
 “We have a prime minister who is very open. But a guy like this should not have been able to get so close. I don’t want to blame the work that was done, but it shows that there is no surveillance on this individual, that the people around the prime minister were not warned,” said Paul Laurier, a former terrorism investigator with the Sûreté du Québec, who has also worked with the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team. 
 
 Laurier said that in addition to bodyguards who assure Trudeau’s physical protection, there is a team of police officers specializing in intelligence who study potential threats faced by Trudeau. 
 
 The allegations against the man in the photo are serious. In June 2015, two years after his return from Turkey, the RCMP executed a search warrant at his parents’ home while investigating the kidnapping of two American journalists, Matthew Schrier and Theo Padnos. 
 
 The two men were held captive in Syria — one for seven months, the other for two years. Officially, the suspect was in Turkey, near the Syrian border, during part of the time they were in captivity. In the search warrant applications that are signed by a justice of the peace, the police said they believed the Quebecer committed several terrorist infractions, including having participated in the kidnapping, extortion and fraud for the profit of a terrorist group. 
 
 The accusations have not been tested before the courts. 
 
 According to sources, the suspect’s name is on an American no-fly list. He had great difficulty returning to Canada in 2013 because of this. Before departing for Turkey, he trained at a firing range and showed signs of radical behaviour. 
 
 Despite this, on Dec. 18, 2015, just six months after the search warrant at his parents’ home, he posted the picture of the selfie with Trudeau. 
 
 That day, the recently elected prime minister was giving an interview to Radio-Canada television host Patrice Roy to talk about his first months in power. The interview was conducted at a Montreal subway station, Place-des-Arts, where the Liberal leader responded to impromptu questions from the public. 
 
 At the end of the interview, Roy took Trudeau up to the street level. That’s where the young man bumped into the politician, who was surrounded by his bodyguards as he posed for selfies with people passing by. 
 
 He was accompanied by another suspect in the alleged kidnapping as well as the man’s wife. The couple do not appear to have been photographed with the politician. 
 
 In a video of the interview broadcast by Radio-Canada, the man can be seen walking in the crowd and attempting to approach Trudeau. Once the interview was finished he took his photograph and left. He was not bothered by the authorities on site. No one attempted to block him. 
 
 It was only several days later, after having published the picture on his Facebook page, that he was visited by the RCMP. 
 
 Sources said the investigators wanted to know why he was spotted in the company of the prime minister. 
 
 Contacted by La Presse, the RCMP refused to respond to questions, indicating that they “touch on ongoing investigations.” 
 
 The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the incident, referring questions to the RCMP.
– Justin Trudeau has posed for countless selfies in the 11 months since he became Canada's prime minister—including one with a man security experts say shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near him. A man who appears in a selfie with Trudeau taken in Montreal last December is being investigated by the Mounties amid accusations he was part of a group that kidnapped an American journalist in Syria in 2013, report La Presse and the Toronto Star. The man, who allegedly joined with the al-Qaeda-affilated Nusra Front, is believed to be on a US no-fly list and his home was raided a few months before the Trudeau photo, reports the CBC. The man has not been charged with any crime and sources say he publicly renounced radical Islam after returning to Canada in late 2013. Still, analysts say the selfie raises serious questions about both Trudeau's security and the monitoring of terror suspects. "We have a prime minister who is very open. But a guy like this should not have been able to get so close," former terrorism investigator Paul Laurier tells La Presse. "I don’t want to blame the work that was done, but it shows that there is no surveillance on this individual, that the people around the prime minister were not warned."