Canada charges 17 in plot to bomb sites in Ontario

OTTAWA: Seventeen Canadian residents have been arrested and charged with plotting to destroy targets in Ontario with crude but powerful bombs, the Canadian authorities announced. Police in Canada say were planning an ‘Al-Qaeda-inspired’ bombing campaign in and around Toronto, following an investigation involving more than 400 officers.

Police seized bomb-making materials in a series of raids in Toronto, including three tons of ammonium nitrate.  Officials said the group “posed a real and serious threat” with “the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks”.

Fifteen of the suspects appeared in a heavily guarded courtroom in Brampton, a Toronto suburb. Some family members sobbed during the hearing while others attempted to speak or wave to the detainees.  A list of the names and addresses of the 12 adults, which was released after the arrests were made, indicates that they are all resident in Toronto or the surrounding province of Ontario. 

Officials said they had been monitoring the group for some time and moved in to make the arrests on Friday after its members took delivery of three tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be transformed into an explosive when combined with fuel oil.

“It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack,” said a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) assistant commissioner, Mike McDonell. The Toronto Star, citing an unnamed source, said the group had a list that included the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa as well as the Toronto branch office of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.