Crown documents give chilling details of alleged Toronto bomb plot
'Rome has to be defeated,' accused allegedly told group
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | 4:05 PM ET Comments27Recommend116
CBC News
Newly-released court documents reveal the sheer scale of the alleged Toronto-area terror plot in 2006, including transcripts of the accused allegedly hoping their attacks would far exceed the London subway bombings a year earlier.
The documents were obtained by various media organizations, including the CBC, late Tuesday at the beginning of the first trial of one of the accused. The Crown has asked for a partial publication ban that would prevent the media from linking evidence to any of the other suspects by name.
An alleged quote from a wiretap demonstrates what the Crown calls a "chilling indifference" to the deaths that would result from a bomb placed on Toronto's Front Street.
"They're probably expecting what happened in London or something — some bombing in a subway — kills 10 people and everybody gets deported," one of the 15 accused is alleged to have told another. "We're not doing that … So our thing it's, it's much, much greater on a scale … You do it once and you make sure they can never recover again."
The London suicide bomb attacks on July 7, 2005, killed 56 people, including the four bombers, and injured more than 700 others on three subway cars and a bus.
The review of the Crown's evidence shows the astounding level of police penetration of the group through wiretaps and video recordings of their alleged training sessions and phone calls.
"Whether we get arrested, whether we get killed, we get tortured, our mission's greater than just individuals," the accused is alleged to have told others in a videotape of an alleged training session near Timmins, Ont.
"Rome has to be defeated and we have to be the ones that do it."
The accused are alleged to have trained and planned for a series of bombings and other attacks, including the capture and potential beheading of Prime Minister Stephen Harper if he did not pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan and release Muslim prisoners.
Members of the group, accused by authorities of being inspired by al-Qaeda, allegedly tried to obtain three tons of ammonium nitrate — an explosive material commonly used in fertilizer.
'We go and kill everybody'
The documents include another wiretap transcript of a suspect allegedly detailing a plan to attack politicians on Parliament Hill, during which both Harper and former prime minister Paul Martin are mentioned.
"What happens, what happens at the Parliament?" one person is heard asking.
"We go and kill everybody," another says.
"And then what?"
"And then read about it … We get victory."
"And take, uh, Paul, um, what's his name ____. Paul loser."
"Paul Martin."
"Yeah."
"Nah, I wish he had won, guy."
"What you, what you talking about?"
"Now it's the other guy, Harper."
The first accused, who was 18 at the time of his arrest but was the only defendant charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to participating in terrorist activity.
Crown prosecutors said they will present evidence that proves he attended a training camp where he participated in military exercises and firearms training.
Eighteen suspects were originally charged, but three have had their charges stayed.
None of the evidence detailed in the Crown review has been tested in court.
Documents only 'best case scenario': defence
Crown attorney Marco Mendicino said Tuesday the evidence to be entered in court is "palpably prejudicial" and could destroy any chances of the other suspects getting a fair trial when their cases go to court.
Paul Slansky, defence lawyer for one of the accused, argued that the documents should not be released to the public because they only represented the Crown's "best-case scenario" version of events.
The judge did not immediately rule on the Crown's application for a publication ban, but put in place an interim ban preventing names or other specific identifying information from being published regarding any accusations heard in court.
But lawyer Paul Schabas, who represented several media outlets, said there should be no publication ban in place at all because the public has a right to know what's going on inside the courtroom, which citizens are allowed to enter.
"This court must do whatever it can … to find a way to argue this as much as possible in public," he said.
Although the trial officially began Tuesday, the first witnesses are not expected to be called until May 27.
Before then, defence lawyers will launch two constitutional challenges regarding the charges that were originally laid and wire taps that were used to gather evidence.
