Canadians are waiting to hear how a software developer who lived in a quiet Ottawa neighbourhood is linked to the recent police raids in London that led to the seizure of bomb-making equipment and the detention of nine British citizens.
Mohammad Momin Khawaja, 24, is Canadian, but like the British detainees - who are being held for their alleged roles in a terrorist plot - he is of Pakistani heritage, and he visited London last year.
Last week, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or Mounties, arrested and charged him under the provisions of Canada's new Anti-terrorism Act. They used a battering ram to break down the door of his family's home, searching it and taking two siblings in for questioning. Police told reporters that Mr Khawaja's arrest was linked to the arrests in the UK, but wouldn't explain how. Eventually the evidence against him will be heard in open court, but until then many Canadians will wonder if the police simply made another mistake when they took Mr Khawaja into custody.
"Police have come up empty so often that when they descended on the Kawaja family home, one couldn't help but think, 'Here we go again,'" the Ottawa Citizen newspaper said in an editorial last week.
Police failures in the war against terrorism have have been high-profile. Last year, 22 Pakistani students and one from India were arrested in Toronto on terrorism-related charges, all of which were eventually dropped.
But nothing compares to the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian was detained - possibly on information provided by the Mounties - while changing planes at a US airport. He was sent to Syria, where he languished in solitary confinement for 10 months in between bouts of torture. He was eventually returned to Canada after Syrian authorities determined he was not a terrorist.
Earlier this year, the Mounties raided the home and office of Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill in what critics say was an assault on freedom of the press, and a ham-fisted attempt to figure out who in the force was leaking information gathered about Mr Arar to the media. The federal government was forced to call for a public inquiry.
Mr Khawaja, speaking through family members and his lawyer, says he innocent.
"He was in high spirits," his 26-year-old brother, Qasim, said after visiting him in jail. "He has nothing to hide. What can I say? He was not scared at all. If anything, he was always smiling and hopeful he was going to be out soon."
The charges against his brother carry of maximum sentence of life in prison. He appeared briefly, via a video link, in a court appearance last week. His bail hearing is set for Wednesday.
Adding to Canadians' curiousity about the case was news that Mr Khawaja's 62-year-old father, Mahboob, had been detained in Saudi Arabia, where he has been a college administrator for about 18 months. The family patriarch has written a book, Muslims and the West, which is critical of both Western and Arab leaders.
His online writings are more inflammatory, and he has been quoted extensively in the Canadian media. He has written that the Arab world is led by ignorant, corrupt despots who serve their Western masters and have abandoned Islam for secular materialism. If free and fair elections were held, voters would elect Osama bin Laden, he has said.
Canadian officials have denied they requested Mahboob Khawaja's detention by the Saudi authorities. His relieved family members told reporters over the weekend that his release is expected soon.
There have also been media reports that the Mounties arrested Mohammad Khawaja at the request of British authorities, who in turn may have been acting on a tip from the US national security agency.
This kind of information may eventually be confirmed when he has his day in court. He is believed to be the first Canadian to be arrested under the new anti-terrorism law enacted after the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States.
His case will be a test of both the new legislation and the credibility of the Mounties.