Alleged terror plot thwarted by arrests in Ontario, Quebec (CBC)

[Wetcoaster]

Why are you guys talking about the U.S. when this is suppose to be about Canada thwarting a terriorist attack?

So Canada should attack its greatest ally in history because of one terrorist scare? I don't see the logic in that... and besides if that ever did happen do you actually think Canada would win against the world's superpower?

[Wetcoaster]

The accused in their first court appearances have denied being involved in any alleged terrorist plot against VIA Rail.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/04/22/terror-plot-suspects.html

It would not be the first time that CSIS and the RCMP have botched these investigations. For every Toronto 18 success there have been many more spectacular failures such as "Project Thread" - which quickly unravelled.

There are dangers when Canadian security agencies jump at shadows and see enemies and threat that do not exist as occurred with the infamous "Project Thread" that resulted in the arrest of 24 foreign students in the Greater Toronto Area in 2003 amidst incorrect allegations they formed a threat to national security, and maintained "suspected ties to al-Qaeda". Former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli would subsequently be forced to admit that "there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that there is any terrorist threat anywhere in this country related to this investigation." Project Thread was a multi-million-dollar investigation, employing enormous resources, using wide-ranging search-and-seizure powers (now about to be re-instituted) over a seven-month time frame. Not a single terrorism-related charge resulted.

In the middle of the night of August 14, 2003, the RCMP burst into apartments around the Greater Toronto area, dragging forty to fifty Pakistani men out of bed at gunpoint. The discovery of an "Al-Qaeda sleeper cell" was announced. The common thread was that the men had at some point either studied at or put Ontario Business College (OBC) down on a student-visa application, or were acquainted with someone who had. Supposedly, an "alert" immigration official got curious when she received an application for permanent residency in which the applicant claimed to have attended the OBC. When she attempted to contact the OBC and failed to find it, federal officials initiated Canada's first major terror investigation of the post-9/11 era.

Further evidence considered germane to suspicions of terror, according to PSAT's twisted logic, was a Lufthansa poster given to one man by his father, an airport baggage handler. Used to cover a bare wall in the apartment, in official reports it became an "airplane schematic"! Another man was said to have been seen walking on the shores of Lake Ontario near the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant — when he was actually in Pakistan. These examples are representative of the quality of evidence collected to back up terror suspicions. PSAT investigated only 31 cases out of the more-than-400 students on file at the OBC.

How did PSAT choose which files to pursue? They only pursued the Muslim and Pakistani cases. Further, the RCMP and the CIC were very careful only to go after men whose status was not regular. In some apartments they did not arrest landed immigrants who had also attended the OBC, while in other apartments roommates who had never heard of the OBC, but who were Pakistani or Muslim and who claimed refugee or visa-student status, were detained. The most important criterion for detention was not whether an individual had actually done something, or whether there was any evidence that they might be planning something, but simply that they were not landed or a citizen.

...

By early September it became clear to nearly everyone concerned with the case that what the government had on its hands was not a sleeper cell but a bunch of international students, security guards and gas-station attendants. However, by this time CIC had held them in detention for a month and had subjected them to numerous interviews without lawyers present. The PSAT had interviewed acquaintances and employers and had confiscated documents, computers and personal possessions.

It was not surprising that in this context CIC department officials could dig up some violation — no matter how minor — upon which to base a deportation order. For example, some men had failed to notify regarding a change of address, or had enrolled in a master's program when their student visa had been issued only for an undergraduate program at the same university. Suddenly a major terrorism investigation had become a collection of routine immigration cases, and, by the middle of November, ten men were deported to Pakistan under a cloud of suspicion.

http://canadiandimension.com/articles/3153

As the CBC noted lots of arrests but not many charges or convictions:

Many others have been arrested in Canada amid terrorism-related allegations since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, but they have not been charged.

Security certificates are another issue and have been used to hold suspects without charge indefinitely. Hassan Almrei, Adil Charkaoui, Mohamed Harkat, Mahmoud Jaballah and Mohammad Mahjoub are being held under security certificates but have not been charged with any crimes. The constitutionality of the security certificates is on its way to the Supreme Court of Canada. On Nov. 22, 2012, the Supreme Court announced it would hear an appeal of Harkat's case, testing the constitutionality of the security certificate law. The public appeal is scheduled to be heard Oct. 11, 2013.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/01/21/ottawa-harkat-deportation.html

The 1985 Air India bombings investigation were a disaster and took almost 20 years to bring charges. A handful of Sikhs alleged to be members of Babbar Khalsa were arrested and tried. Inderjit Singh Reyat, a Canadian legal resident, was the only person convicted of involvement in the bombing. There was a lack of solid evidence, and the courts ruled there had been numerous legal and investigative errors. Singh pleaded guilty in 2003 to manslaughter. It was such a mess we had to have a Royal Commission of Inquiry that found deplorable conduct and complete incompetence on the part of the RCMP and CSIS both pre and post bombing. After the subsequent failure of CSIS to stop the bombing of Flight 182, the head of CSIS was replaced by Reid Morden. In an interview for CBC Television's news program The National, Morden claims that CSIS "dropped the ball" in its handling of the case.

In 2006 The government appointed appointed former Supreme Court Justice John Major to conduct a commission of inquiry into the bombings. His report was completed and released on 17 June 2010. It was a scathing indictment of incompetence concluding that a "cascading series of errors" by the government of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had allowed the terrorist attack to take place in the first place and the subsequent investigation was pretty much totally botched.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/06/17/air-india017.html

In the case of Maher Arar a botched RCMP investigation and supply of false information led to to another Commission of Inquiry had to be conducted and he was awarded substantial damages.

For those who do not recall Arar's case he was awarded $10.5 million in compensation for the Canadian government's role in his "rendition" by the US and torture in Syria following Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar chaired by Justice Dennis O'Connor.

Maher Arar is a Syrian-Canadian electrical engineer. In September 2002, he was detained by U.S. officials on suspicion of terrorist ties and deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured. He was returned to Canada in October 2003. Three years later, a Commission of Inquiry cleared him of all terrorism allegations.

After his return to Canada Arar was further victimized and it took the judicial inquiry to clear his name. As Justice O'Connor found in his report the damages were exacerbated by these subsequent actions:

Among other things, after his return, he was subjected to several very improper and unfair leaks of information that damaged his reputation, caused him enormous personal suffering and may have contributed to the difficulties this well-educated Canadian man has experienced in finding employment in his chosen field of computer engineering.

And there have been similar cases that have also relsulted in judicial commissions of inquiry. The 2008 findings of the inquiry by Justice Frank Iacobucci implicated CSIS in dubious practices, both direct and indirect, that led to the detention and torture of Canadian citizens Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin in Syria.

[An] inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci into the imprisonment of three other Arab-Canadian men during the same post-9-11 period found Canadian officials had a hand in the torture of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin in Syria through the sharing of information with foreign intelligence and police agencies.

In the case of Mr. Almalki, Canadian officials provided questions to Syrian military intelligence.

False confessions Mr. El Maati made under torture — including a fictitious plan to attack the Parliament buildings — were used to obtain search warrants in Canada.

Before the actions of the RCMP and security agencies are applauded, let us first see what the evidence in the case of these two alleged terrorists may be.

[Cynrgee]

Welcome to the forum. Every topic is an excuse to bash Americans.

[Wetcoaster]

Welcome to the forum. Every topic is an excuse to bash Americans.

[aGENT]

Welcome to the forum. Every topic is an excuse to bash Americans.

[taxi]

I'd say more like "bash ignorance". If that ignorance happens to come from our American cousins in great heaping spoonfuls...well...

[DeNiro]

Welcome to the forum. Every topic is an excuse to bash Republicans.

[DeNiro]

No not really. Most threads end up generalizations about Americans based on stupid actions by a few. There are just as many stupid people per capita in Canada.

[taxi]

I would say people living in the Southern United States bring that ratio up a bit for America.

The reason why these negative stereotypes exist is because it's almost as if some people in America, especially Republicans, seem to flaunt stupidity and ignorance. I don't need to even bring up some of the bonehead comments republican senators and congressmen have made.

Just watch one episode of John Stewart to see where these ideas come from.

[DeNiro]

My point was more that there are just as many ignorant people in Canada. The attitude on this board is often equivalent to holding out the population of Bountiful as being representative of all of Canada.

[taxi]

Fair enough. But the fact that people as dumb as some republican politicians are rising to power does not reflect well on the rest of the population.

I don't recall any Canadian politician saying anything as dumb as the republican that said rape victims bodies have the ability to stop pregnancy.

If Americans are mad about having a negative stereotype of being stupid, blame it on the people that they are electing.

[DeNiro]

Politicians in the USA speak their mind. That means sometimes off the cuff remarks come out. The political system is also different there, in that you can get to the head of a party without being a party suck up.

In Canada, the way to get ahead in politics is to suck up to your party and then say as little as possible. in the USA anyone can throw their hat into the ring. I honestly think we could learn a lot from the political system. In Canada, you essentially have to be corrupt to even run.

[Hunter56]

Not Americans per se but issues such as gun control, same sex marriage, the death penalty, disregard for international law etc. and wack a doodle Tea Party types.

[taxi]

I think you have misconception about Canadian vs American politics.

Canadian politicians are more than free to speak their minds. Only under Harper has it become harder for conservatives to do this.

US politics is much more of an insiders club, where you get in based on who or your daddy knows. It's the only way someone as dumb as George W Bush could become leader of the most powerful nation on earth. There's also countless corporations in the pockets of almost every US politician.

Don't be fooled, it's the most corrupt government on earth.