Captive in Canada

My brother’s three months in solitary

Source: Toronto Star - 6-apr-08

In the end, his charges were stayed. ‘The authorities ruined my brother’s future, his reputation and abused him physically and psychologically - all for, according to them, absolutely no reason’

A time comes when silence is betrayal. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s been nearly two years since the raid on our house, since the day they took my brother and another relative. Since that day, my family and I have lived in silence. It’s an emotional topic for me and talking about it means reliving that pain all over again. But I feel obliged to let Canadians know about our experience and what we continue to experience each and every single day.

Full Story | April 7th, 2008 News, Opinions | no comments | Email it! | 172 views

For the families - fear and bewilderment

Source: Toronto Star - 6-apr-08

The arrest of an alleged Toronto terrorist ring on June 2, 2006, was initially hailed as an intelligence coup. Now the case seems far less clear-cut. Meanwhile, the family of one accused continues to wait - and suffer.

History will record June 2, 2006 as the day when police arrested members of what they claimed was Canada’s first homegrown Islamic terrorist conspiracy. But in a modest middle-class section of Oakville, Rukhsana Gaya - then a department store cosmetics manager - remembers that day as the moment her family’s life was shattered.

Full Story | April 6th, 2008 News | one comment | Email it! | 171 views

High court won’t hear challenge of secrecy provisions in terror case

Source: Canadian Press - 4-apr-08

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada, for the second time in a year, has turned down an effort by accused terrorist Momin Khawaja to derail his prosecution on constitutional grounds. In a ruling released without comment Thursday, the court refused to hear Khawaja’s challenge to federal legislation designed to safeguard secret intelligence.

At issue was a portion of the Canada Evidence Act, under which the government can refuse to disclose sensitive information to an accused person on national security grounds.

Full Story | April 3rd, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 125 views

Publication Ban in Canada Terror Trial

Source: Associate Press - 2-apr-08

TORONTO (AP) - The judge in the trial of a youth charged with plotting terror attacks in Ontario has ruled that a publication ban on the identities of his co-accused is necessary to ensure their fair trials.

Superior Court Justice John Sproat said in a ruling that publicity in the case could influence potential jurors. Sproat put an interim ban on the publishing of the defendants’ identities last week and made it permanent on Tuesday.

Full Story | April 2nd, 2008 News | 2 comments | Email it! | 400 views

Judge vents frustration over delay in Khawaja terror trial

Source: Ottawa Citizen - 29-mar-08

States concerns in letter to Crown, defence lawyer Saturday

Exactly four years after RCMP tactical units arrested Momin Khawaja at his home in Orléans, an Ontario Superior Court judge has taken the unusual step of writing a letter to the Crown and the defence lawyer, expressing his desire to finally bring the matter to trial.

“I am increasingly concerned to try to find a way to get on with this trial without further delay if at all possible,” Justice Douglas Rutherford wrote in the letter obtained by the Citizen.

Full Story | March 30th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 176 views

Evidence in Toronto terror case not quite ’sensational’

Source: Toronto Star - 27-mar-08

What are we to make of the Crown’s case against the Toronto 18? The summary of evidence released this week in advance of the trial of one of the Muslim men and boys arrested two years ago on terror charges describes what will come out in court as “shocking and sensational.”

And if the 18 had been seriously planning to blow up buildings and behead politicians, these cases - when they finally do come to trial - would indeed be sensational.

But as with everything else that has emerged from the high-profile but secretive prosecution, this week’s revelations end up creating more questions than they answer.

Full Story | March 27th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 152 views

Terror schemes exaggerated, lawyer says

Source: Globe & Mail - 26-mar-08

BRAMPTON, ONT. — Call it the double-double defence: Would dangerous jihadists take a break from their winter training camp to warm up inside a Tim Hortons?

Defence lawyer Michael Moon raises the question in a new motion concerning the so-called Toronto 18 terror trial. Citing previously undisclosed evidence to be presented at trial, he argues that any schemes of the accused have been grossly exaggerated by informants, police and the news media – and even by the group’s own ringleaders.

“In fact this hapless F-Troop, who ventured into the deathly cold of winter without a proper tent … was reduced to sleeping in the vehicles at night to prevent freezing to death,” writes Mr. Moon in a new factum. He adds they went “trooping off to the Tim Hortons multiple times a day for coffee and use of the bathroom.”

Full Story | March 27th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 140 views

Defence in Toronto bomb plot case counters claims of terror training

Source: CBC News - 26-mar-08
A defence lawyer in the alleged Toronto-area bomb plot case filed a court document Wednesday attacking the Crown’s case as fanciful and based largely on the unsubstantiated allegations of an unreliable police informant.

The defence factum, a summary of the case that lawyers will argue during the trial, takes on some of the more dramatic allegations made in Crown documents submitted on Tuesday.

Full Story | March 26th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 130 views

First Trial Opens in Canada Terror Case

Source: Associated Press - 26-mar-08

TORONTO (AP) - A teenager charged with plotting terror attacks in Ontario pleaded not guilty to belonging to a terrorist group Tuesday, as some details of an alleged plan to storm Canada’s Parliament emerged publicly for the first time.

Full Story | March 26th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 120 views

Youth case proceedings

Source: CTV - 26-mar-08

Crown lawyers expect to present evidence against the Toronto-area terror suspects that show some of the accused planned to commit attacks more deadly than the London subway bombings, according to documents filed in court containing anticipated evidence.

New details contained in the Crown factum that was filed at the trial of the only remaining youth charged allege prosecutors have audio tapes and video tape evidence of some of the suspects plotting several explosions.

Full Story | March 26th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 120 views

Alleged participant at ‘terrorist camp’ told it was winter camping trip: factum

Source: Canadian Press - 26-mar-08

BRAMPTON, Ont. - New court documents in the alleged Toronto terror plot say an alleged jihadist training camp was nothing more than a screening exercise for potential recruits where participants made regular runs to Tim Hortons. The defence factum for one of the 15 suspects says the only person to actually take live ammunition into the camp was a police informant.

The alleged participation of the suspects in a terrorist camp is a central pillar of the prosecution’s case. But the lawyer behind the factum says his client was only told he was going on a winter camping trip.

Full Story | March 26th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 105 views

Trial begins for youth charged in alleged Toronto bomb plot

Source: CBC News - 25-mar-08

The trial of one of 15 suspects charged in the alleged Toronto bomb plot of 2006 began Tuesday in a courtroom in Brampton, Ont. The Crown previewed the evidence it plans to present - calling it “shocking and sensational” - and requested a publication ban on evidence that could prejudice the right to a fair trial for his alleged co-conspirators.

The accused, who was charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act and cannot be named, pleaded not guilty.

Full Story | March 25th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! | 104 views