Wolking’s World

The Toronto 18 had some big plans.

The “shocking and sensational” inner workings of an alleged homegrown terror cell were unveiled yesterday in a Brampton court – and included the plotting of an attack “much greater” in scale than the London 2005 bombings that killed 52 people.

In a document made public for the first time, the Crown painted a broad picture of the expected evidence in the trial of a youth who pleaded not guilty to belonging to a terrorist group. The trial opened yesterday.

According to the allegations, the so-called Toronto 18 were attempting to secure a safe house to store weapons and practise military drills, and embarking on a mission to destroy the West – one they should be willing to die for.

Details of the alleged plot, which also included storming Parliament Hill and beheading politicians, emerged in a factum filed by the Crown that described the case against the accused as “shocking and sensational.”

The document contains transcripts of wiretaps and videotapes that include one conversation in which one of the accused speaks of the group’s ambitions.

“They’re probably expecting what happened in London or something,” he said. “… Some bombing in a subway kills 10 people and everybody gets deported. 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.”

In arguing for a publication ban, the Crown said the evidence of these violent schemes and aspirations are so disturbing they could prejudice the future trials of the 14 adults who are also charged with belonging to this group. The accused were among 18 adults and youths arrested in a massive police sweep in 2006 for allegedly belonging to an Al Qaeda inspired cell. Charges against three youths have been stayed. Of the adults, 10 remain in jail and four are out on bail.

In response to concerns raised by the Crown, as well as defence lawyers representing some of the adults, the judge banned the publication of any names and a small portion of the allegations.

Until yesterday, all evidence in these cases was covered by other publication bans. The expected evidence remains to be either admitted or rejected during the youth’s trial.

While some of the allegations have already surfaced in public reports, a great deal in the factum had never been published. Some of that expected evidence includes:

• Videos of terrorist indoctrination, in which the accused are exhorted to wage battle in the new empire of “Rome” in North America, “whether we get arrested, whether we get killed.”
• Wiretap surveillance in which they discuss their desire to “establish the religion of Allah and to get rid of the oppressors” and the need for funds to finance their goals of building a “team” to “go make an attack.”
• The construction of a “radio frequency remote-control detonator” that needed to be improved because its range was nine metres.
• Allegations the accused attended two training camps. One was a 12-day camp near the town of Washago, Ont., where they practised military-style exercises in camouflage gear and undertook firearms training with a 9-mm firearm. The second was a two-day camp at the Rockwood Conservation Area, where they donned camouflage clothing and made a propaganda-style video of their military drills.

According to the Crown’s factum, the alleged terrorists first popped onto the radar of police in August 2005, when two of the adults were stopped at the Canada-U.S. border in a rented vehicle while attempting to smuggle firearms and ammunition into the country.

If you clicked on the “Toronto 18″ link above you know that there are some people pretty serious about supporting this group of jihadists. After reading the article I quoted, if you too feel the strong urge to defend these Islamic terrorists, their FaceBook support groups are here and here (must log in to view).