[2][3] They were accused of planning to detonate truck bombs, to open fire in a crowded area, and to storm the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, the Parliament of Canada building, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) headquarters, and the parliamentary Peace Tower to take hostages and to behead the Prime Minister and other leaders.
Following the jury trial in June 2010, a comprehensive presentation of the case and the evidence obtained from court exhibits previously restricted was given by Isabel Teotonio of the Toronto Star.
They asked Shaikh if he would join them and teach them how to use a gun, since he had mentioned his military and martial arts training, and shown them his Possession and Acquisition Licence.
[13] Six months prior to the planned attack, the group watched a video over the internet of Anwar al Awlaki (the imam who was connected to three of the 9/11 hijackers) preaching about the need for jihad.
[14] The ringleader gave sermons comparing the Canadian countryside to Chechnya, and calling for victory over "Rome", which prosecutors alleged was a reference to Canada.
The home video showed masked men in winter camouflage marching through the snow in an Ontario forest, shouting "Allahu Akbar"—or "God is Great"—while waving a black flag.
[23] Shaikh, the police agent, was accused by the defence of having played a "key role" in setting up and running the trip,[24] purchasing many of the supplies used,[11] and being the "military trainer" at the camp.
Law enforcement authorities identified other targets, including the CSIS headquarters, the Parliamentary Buildings' Peace Tower, and power grids.
The police stated that one of the arrested men ordered three metric tonnes (6,600 pounds) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a potentially powerful ingredient often used as quarry and mining explosives.
There was not any imminent danger to the public, as a harmless substance was substituted for the ordered ammonium nitrate and delivered to the men by INSET officers in a sting operation.
Two men, Yasim Abdi Mohamed and Ali Dirie, were already serving a two-year prison sentence for trying to smuggle a pair of handguns across the Peace Bridge a year earlier, for "personal protection" for themselves since they had worked as designer clothing re-sellers in seedy neighborhoods.
They had their charges upgraded to "importing weapons for terrorist purposes" after it was revealed that their third handgun had been meant to repay Ahmad who had used his credit card to pay for their rental car.
One was convicted at trial and sentenced to 2.5 years; the publication ban on his name was lifted in September 2009, and he was identified as Nishanthan Yogakrishnan, a convert to Islam from Hinduism.
[50] According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) two other men, Syed Ahmed and Ehsanul Sadequee, who were arrested in Georgia in the United States on terrorism charges, are connected to the case as well.
[53] John Hostettler, American chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Border Security said the arrest illustrated that "South Toronto" served as an "enclave for radical discussion", where people held "a militant understanding of Islam".
[54][55] The initial reports of this incident caused some controversy when a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, Mike McDonell, described the arrested people as representing a "broad strata" of Canadian society,[56] and the Toronto Star claimed that it was "difficult to find a common denominator" among them,[56] even though all were radical Muslims and many attended the same mosque.
[58] Imam Aly Hindy, who knew nine of the accused youths personally, said he had doubted any of them "did anything wrong", adding that "If some of them are guilty, I don't think it's terrorism.
[59] At the opening trial, against the sole remaining youth, prosecutors alleged that comments that referred to "shotgun on Blondie" were actually a pretext to sexually assault non-Muslims.
[77] Defence counsel argued that police mole Shaikh was in effect entrapping one of the men through his actions as an instructor at a training camp he had infiltrated on behalf of the RCMP.
Superior Court Justice John Sproat ruled in March 2009 that there was no entrapment, noting that the camp would have proceeded as planned without Shaikh's participation, and the training and indoctrination provided would have been similar.
[83] Elsohemy, the second mole in the case, was placed in witness protection after he agreed to help the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrange the phony ammonium nitrate purchase on behalf of the youths, which led to the allegations of a bomb plot.
Zakaria Amara, 23, from Mississauga, pleaded guilty in a Brampton, Ontario, court to charges of participating in the activities of a terrorist group and planning explosions likely to cause serious bodily harm or death.
[87][88] The Canadian Coalition for Peace and Justice (CCPJ) filed submission on behalf of some of the arrested with the United Nations Human Rights Council, Fourth Universal Periodic Review Canada (2008).
Lawyer for the CCPJ, Faisal Kutty, alleged on behalf of the CCPJ that Canada was in breach of its international commitments pursuant to various provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the First United Nations Congress in 1955; and the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1990.