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The Great Ontario Terror Plot sounds like the kind of ingenious fancy a gifted satirist might concoct. The terrorists planned to take over the CBC? What for? How could you tell? What changes would they implement? Sensitive CBC hackettes would cease referring to terrorists as "militants" and "activists" and start calling them "fishers"? The plotters planned to kidnap Canadian big shots and behead them? Why bother? Judging from their reactions, much of the Canuck establishment have already parted company from their heads, or at any rate their brains. It would surely be superfluous formally to decapitate, say, Toronto police Chief...

The federal government has taken steps to prevent a controversial British imam from entering Canada on Friday to speak to a Muslim youth conference in Toronto, CTV News has learned. Sheikh Riyadh ul-Haq, a prominent cleric in England who has been accused of publicly vilifying Jews and Hindus, among other groups, was slated to be the keynote speaker for the weekend Youth Tarbiyah conference, sponsored by the Islamic Foundation of Toronto. Sources told CTV News that Immigration Minister Monte Solberg informed immigration officials that ul Haq should not be allowed into the country because of his extreme views. The cleric...

BRAMPTON, Ont. (CP) - An Ontario justice of the peace refused Tuesday to grant bail to a pair of youths who face terror-related charges after they were swept up in a series of dramatic arrests in Toronto earlier this month. The youths, aged 15 and 18, were taken back into custody after the decision. The older of the two youths was 17 at the time of the alleged offences. Neither can be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The pair are both facing charges of participating in a terrorist group, and receiving training in a terrorist group. Michael Block,...

FBI probes Toronto tie to foreign terror cells Toronto Globe and Mail Saturday, June 24, 2006 PAUL KORING , COLIN FREEZE and DOUG SAUNDERS WASHINGTON, TORONTO, LONDON -- Counterterrorism agents are probing links between the foiled plot in Toronto and Islamic extremists in other countries, Robert Mueller, the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, said yesterday. "We are investigating possible ties between the Toronto suspects and terrorist cells around the world," Mr. Mueller said in a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, that gave the most explicit confirmation to date of international co-operation surrounding the Toronto cell. The thwarting of an alleged...

Lock our doors to terrorists The London Free Press Tuesday, 20 June, 2006 By Rory Leishman In a statement at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed that his government will spend more than $250 million over the next two years to improve passenger and baggage screening at airports, rail terminals, urban transit facilities and ports. "This is how the fight against terrorism will be won," he said. "Modernizing equipment and procedures, plugging the holes, filling the gaps and thinking one step ahead of the agents of hate and terror." Harper is right. When, though,...

'These individuals are part of western society, and their 'Canadianness' makes detection more difficult," was the way a report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service described the radical Islamists charged with plotting to attack targets in southern Ontario with fertilizer bombs. "Increasingly, we are learning of more and more extremists that are homegrown," noted the declassified CSIS report. "The implications of this shift are important." And indeed they are. The dream of assimilation into western societies, of a new beginning beyond the burning grounds of Islamic lands, has been battered. Radical Islamism has come to mock the very principle of...

TTAWA (Reuters) - Canada\\\'s government and main opposition party united on Friday to condemn \\\"completely uninformed and ignorant remarks\\\" by a U.S. member of Congress who said Canada was a breeding ground for terrorists. Last week police in and around Toronto arrested 17 Muslim men, five of whom are under the age of 18. Several of them are charged with plotting bombings in major Canadian cities and training militants. John Hostettler, chairman of the House of Representatives subcommittee on immigration and border security, said on Thursday that Canada \\\"hosts an abundance of terrorists and as many as 50 terrorist organizations\\\"....

TORONTO (CP) - Ottawa was wrong in denying the son of a suspected al-Qaida financier a Canadian passport two years ago based on national security concerns, the federal court ruled Friday. New anti-terror provisions didn't legally exist when Abdurahman Khadr was denied a new passport in early 2004. For that reason, a federal court judge ordered Friday that the Canadian Passport Office reconsider Khadr's application under the former rules. Still, Justice Michael Phelan's decision made it clear that Khadr's passport, if granted, would not be "immune from the newer provisions of the 2004 Canadian Passport Order." "To the extent that...

The arrest of six Mississauga men for allegedly conspiring to blow up the Parliament buildings and the Toronto Stock Exchange is the latest stop on a complex web of terror that connects back to the world's most wanted man, international investigators are saying. Investigators say the arrests of the Mississauga men are linked to an intricate terror network spreading from the back streets of Baghdad through cells of young Islamic militants living in European capitals. The arrest of 17 suspects, many of them teenagers, picked up in Mississauga and across the GTA during a counter-terrorism sweep on the weekend, is...

You're an enlightened world citizen. Your T-shirt says "9/11 was an inside job." You're pretty sure we're living in a fascist state, that President Bush taps the Dixie Chicks' phones, Christian abortion clinic bombers outnumber jihadis, and the war on "terror" is a distraction from the real threats: carbon emissions and Pat Robertson. Then you learn that 17 people were arrested in a terrorist bomb plot. How do you process the information? Let's take it step by step. Gosh, that's horrible, you think. But no -- that's what they WANT you to feel. Recall the prime directive: Question Authority (unless...

Writer facing jail for mosque threat By Malcolm Moore in Milan (Filed: 07/06/2006) The Italian author Oriana Fallaci, who once wrote that Muslims "breed like rats", may be facing up to three years in prison after she vowed to blow up a mosque. Ms Fallaci, 75, who has cancer, is due to appear in court next week charged with the lesser offence of vilifying Islam, punishable with a £3,450 fine. But after her latest outburst in the New Yorker last week Muslim leaders are demanding that she be tried for inciting religious hatred, which carries a three-year jail term. The...

Spectators and family members of some of the 17 Muslim men accused of plotting terror attacks in Canada were stunned Tuesday when they heard allegations of plans to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead the prime minister. Authorities during a hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice further alleged that one of the suspects, Steven Vikash Chand, also plotted to take over media outlets, including Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Before the raids came the sensitivity training: Tactical-squad Mounties learned how to properly handle Korans prior to arresting 17 terrorism suspects on the weekend. And that's not all. The RCMP also made sure there were clean prayer mats on hand for their suspects when they were sent to jail cells. Then, after everything wrapped up, authorities met with a number of Muslim leaders to impress upon them that officers were going after specific individuals, not the community as a whole. "Our officers need to be respectful," said RCMP spokeswoman Corporal Michele Paradis.

TORONTO, Ontario (CNN) -- Prosecutors allege that one of the terrorism suspects arrested in Canada last week wanted "to behead the prime minister," a defense lawyer said Tuesday. An eight-page synopsis of the allegations against the 17 men and boys was given to defense lawyers Tuesday. "The allegations are that my client is alleged to have been part of a plot to blow up parliament buildings in Canada, storm the CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corp.], take over the CBC, as well as, among other things, behead the prime minister," said Gary Batasar, lawyer for defendant Steven Vikash Chand, 25. Batasar and...

It was only a matter of time National Post Mon 05 Jun 2006 Page: A17 , Section: Issues & Ideas Byline: Lorne Gunter It would have been chilling, perhaps even shocking, watching spokesmen for the RCMP, CSIS and four Toronto-area police forces describe the explosives, guns, detonators and assorted jihadi training material they said they seized last week when they arrested 17 terror suspects -- would have been ... if I hadn't suspected such a day would come all along. It was only a matter of time. Canada and Canadians are just lucky this massive criminal plot -- if...

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (AP) - 0603dvs-canada-terror The Royal Canadian Mounted Police itself delivered three tons of potential bomb-making material to a group that authorities said wanted to launch a string of attacks inspired by al-Qaida, according to a news report Sunday. The Toronto Star said the sting unfolded when investigators delivered the ammonium nitrate to the group of Muslim Canadians, then moved in quickly on what officials called a homegrown terror ring. The newspaper said that investigators learned of the group's alleged plan to bomb targets around Ontario, then controlled the sale and transport of the fertilizer. Authorities refused to discuss...

Canadian Muslim organizations have condemned an alleged plot to bomb Toronto-area buildings, while a lawyer for one of the 17 suspects in custody called the charges against them "vague." "We are committed to the safety and security of Canada and Canadians," said Mohammad Alam, president of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto. "We of all Canadians are shocked at the recent arrests of young Muslim men and teenagers and the very serious allegation against them." Canadian authorities rounded up a group of 17 Muslim men and boys suspected of plotting to bomb major buildings in the Toronto area, the Royal Canadian...

RCMP Raid Foils Plot by Jihadists to Bomb Canadian Targets as 17 Arrested, Had Training Camp Near Toronto By Steve Schippert The Royal Canadian Mounted Police conducted a counterterrorism raid in the Greater Toronto Area involving over 400 personnel and broke a Canadian terrorist cell planning to bomb Canadian targets. Twelve adult Muslim jihadists and five juveniles were arrested, some of them second-generation Canadian citizens and some of them recent immigrants. They ranged in ages from in their 20’s to teens. They arrested group was described as “Muslims, but not Arabs” and unconnected to the UK raid yesterday in attempts...

Be sickened. Be frightened. Be angry. But don't you dare be shocked. Unless you've been had. Either way, the time has long passed for domestic bliss born of ignorance, virtue and wilful denial. For everyone who thought Canada could cower in a corner of the planet, unnoticed and unthreatened by evil men — even when the most menacing of a very bad lot has twice referenced this country as a target for attack — take a good, hard look at what's been presented and what's being alleged. Three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, thrice the amount used by Timothy McVeigh to...

A Canadian counterterrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries.Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden and Bangladesh.The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.At a news conference yesterday, the RCMP announced terrorism charges had been laid against a...