http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/414859Once labelled Canada's first homegrown, Islamist terror plot, the case of the so-called Toronto 18 is quietly melting away. With yesterday's decision to stay charges against four more of those that it had once labelled dangerous terrorists, the federal government is now admitting that it never had a serious case against almost half of the men and youths charged two years ago. So far, the Crown has stayed charges against seven of the 18 Toronto-area Muslim males. While technically, that means it could re-lay charges within a year, legal experts call such a move unlikely. This does not necessarily mean the Crown's case is entirely bogus. The government argues that some of the remaining 11 were involved in a scheme to obtain explosive material, while others participated in a terror training camp.
Because of a judicial publication ban, whatever evidence – if any – that the government has produced in court to bolster these allegations cannot be reported. But what is becoming clear from material that can be revealed is that the alleged plot was never quite as advertised.
Back in June 2006, the overriding sentiment in government and media was that a dangerous attack had been narrowly avoided. The allegations – that Canadian Muslim extremists were planning to behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seize MPs and blow up the CBC – seemed unbelievable. But in a post-9/11 world, the unbelievable had, for many, a ring of truth. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day hinted darkly of more arrests to come. The media asked how homegrown terrorism could happen here, a not illegitimate question, but one that implicitly assumed the 18 were guilty. Coming at a time when Parliament was reviewing the 2002 anti-terror law, the arrests bolstered the arguments of those who wanted the more draconian aspects of that legislation kept in place. The arrests also stoked fears that Islamist radicals were motivating impressionable Muslim youths.
In some press accounts, the eldest person arrested, a Mississauga bus driver named Qayyum Abdul Jamal, then 43, was painted as the Islamic firebrand behind the youthful plotters. This view was reinforced when then Liberal MP Wajid Khan (he's now a Conservative) told reporters that he had once heard Jamal at a mosque badmouthing Canada's troops in Afghanistan. Ironically, Jamal was one of the four who had his charges stayed yesterday. He may indeed be a critic of Canadian foreign policy. But it seems that he is not a terrorist ideologue.
Other elements of the government's case did not stand up well under scrutiny. The alleged terror training camp turned out to be a hapless adventure in the rain, one where participants spent much of their time in a local doughnut shop and where the ammunition for target practice was apparently provided by one of two paid RCMP informers. As for the alleged plot to behead Harper, it was apparently derailed because the plotters didn't know how to get to Parliament Hill. Nor, it seems (according to material released by the Crown), were they exactly sure who the Prime Minister was. Still, we are sure to learn more about the case against the rapidly shrinking Toronto 18 when the actual trials begin – if, by then, the Crown still has anyone left it wants to try.
Thomas Walkom's column appears Wednesday and Saturday.
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