BRAMPTON -- A terrorist plot to start the "Battle of Toronto" and blow up two downtown buildings was designed to unleash a mass wave of fear, crippling the economy and forcing Canada to pull troops out of Afghanistan, a court heard yesterday.
The sentencing hearing of Saad Khalid, 22, of Mississauga, one of the so-called Toronto 18, began yester morning before Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno with the reading of a statement of facts -- not contested by the defence -- concerning the events leading up to the June 2006 massive police bust that netted 14 adults and four youths.
The Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service's Toronto offices and an unnamed military base along Hwy. 401 between Toronto and Ottawa were all targets for a planned November 2006 attack.
Rented trucks filled with homemade bombs were to be parked near these locations and they were to be detonated by cellphone.
The ringleader of the group plotting the attack wanted to see the explosions happen on three successive days rather than at the same time in order to maximize the effect on a startled population.
None of the people named in the statement, except for Khalid, can be named under a publication ban ordered by Durno which forbids reporting any names or information that would tend to identify them.
The plot was designed to "screw Stephen Harper, the government and the military," Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson said, reading from the statement. "He thought that as a result of the bombings Canada might withdraw its troops from Afghanistan because it is not tough like Britain or the United States."
The group was planning to concoct bombs using ammonium nitrate and other ingredients including mercury and nitric acid but the contact they were using to acquire the chemicals was actually a police informant.
One of Khalid's co-accused told the informant on May 18, 2006 that "he would like the bomb that is going to be detonated outside the Toronto Stock Exchange to be two tonnes, instead of one, so that it would destroy the whole building and the surrounding three blocks.
"He ... described how there will be blood, glass and debris everywhere. (He) said this will be a war battle, the Battle of Toronto," Michaelson said reading from the statement.
The group had also originally planned to launch the attack at night to minimize the killing of innocent civilians but later decided to change their timetable.
"Casualties would be good because it would prove we are not afraid to kill people," one of the accused said.
Tests done later by the RCMP showed a one-tonne bomb consisting of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel would be the equivalent to 768 kilos of TNT and "would have caused catastrophic damage to a multi-storey glass and steel building 35 metres from the bomb site as well as killing or causing serious injuries to people in the path of the blast waves and force."
But Khalid's role in the plan was minimal, his lawyer, Russell Silverstein, indicated he would argue as the sentencing hearing continues this week.
The Mississauga man was charged with knowingly participating in a terrorist group and receiving training for the purpose of enhancing the ability of a terrorist group but has only pleaded guilty to participating in a terror group "with the intention of causing an explosion or explosions that were likely to cause serious bodily harm or death," or to damage property.
The statement of facts indicates Khalid's primary role was to be involved in finding a place to store the bomb-making ingredients and unloading those ingredients on delivery day -- something he eventually accomplished through a person who actually was a police officer.
A surveillance tape played in court showed Khalid and a co-accused unloading bags marked "ammonium nitrate" off a truck at a Newmarket warehouse on June 2, 2006. About two minutes into the unloading process, the tape shows heavily armed police officers moving in for the bust.
After the two had been arrested, a search of the warehouse uncovered handwritten instructions on what to do with the shipment after it was off the truck, slightly more than $10,000 cash and a computer memory stick that contained an audio mention from one of the ringleaders as well as some documents entitled "For Your Eyes Only/Toronto.doc" which was real estate listings in the GTA.
A number of things were also seized from Khalid's bedroom during a search of his home including a handwritten note listing "wires, circuit, and mercury -- 100 grams" and a map to an electronics store.
But Silverstein said his client wasn't really involved in the planning process that makes up the core of the attack plot.
"A significant amount of what happened was outside my client's knowledge," he told the court before Khalid was formally convicted of the lone count.
The sentencing hearing continues tomorrow.
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TIMELINE OF TERROR
Key events in the case of the terrorist suspects known as the Toronto 18:
- December 2005: A dozen people attend a 12-day military-style camp north of Toronto, which the Crown alleges was for terrorist training.
- May 2006: Group attends second two-day camp near Guelph.
- June 2, 2006: Police carry out a series of raids in the Toronto area and arrest 10 men and five youths. Two other suspects are already jailed in Kingston. One more is arrested in August.
- June 6, 2006: A lawyer for an adult suspect says outside court his client is accused of planning to storm Parliament, behead the prime minister and attack a number of sites.
- June 27, 2006: The two youngest suspects -- they were 15 and 17 when arrested -- are denied bail.
- July 13, 2006: Mubin Shaikh, a prominent member of Toronto's Indo-Canadian Muslim community, reveals he worked as a paid RCMP informant.
- July 14, 2006: A teen suspect is granted bail, making him the first of the group to be released.
- Jan. 16, 2007: Preliminary hearing begins for four youth suspects.
- Feb. 23, 2007: Charges are stayed against the youngest suspect.
- July 31, 2007: Charges are stayed against two other youth suspects.
- Sept. 24, 2007: Federal prosecutors move to stop the adult suspects' preliminary hearing and go straight to trial. Charges are stayed against the accused, then charges are reissued, resulting in five suspects facing additional charges and three each having one charge dropped.
- March 25, 2008: Trial begins for suspect who was a youth at time of his arrest. He pleads not guilty.
- April 15, 2008: Crown asks for stay of proceedings against four of the adult suspects.
- Sept. 25, 2008: Judge finds youth, now 20, guilty on a charge of participating in a terrorist activity.
- March 24: Judge finds RCMP informant didn't entrap youth in the months leading up to his arrest.
- May 4: Saad Khalid pleaded guilty to his role in a terrorist bomb-making plot.
- June 22: A sentencing hearing for Khalid begins with the reading of a 37-page statement of uncontested facts.
BRIAN.GRAY@SUNMEDIA.CA
