And not courthouses.
Zakaria Amara, 23, the group's ringleader, pleaded guilty on Oct. 8. A police informant described him as being a "time bomb waiting to go off" and having a "total indifference to innocent life." He was sentenced this week to life in prison, but will be eligible for parole in six years.
Saad Gaya, 21, a McMaster University student, pleaded guilty on Sep. 28. The group's ringleaders selected Gaya to drive one of the bomb-laden trucks to its target. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison this week, but will be eligible for parole in 3½ years.
Ali Mohamed Dirie, 26, a Somali-Canadian, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to smuggling guns for the terrorist group. While in prison, Dirie "took an active role in recruiting other inmates to adopt extreme jihadi beliefs," the Crown prosecutor said during his trial.
Saad Khalid, 23, was the first of the group to plead guilty. The Saudi-born Khalid was sentenced to 14 years but could be released on parole in just more than two years because of seven years' credit given for time served. Khalid bought electrical components and recruited another person into the group. Crown prosecutors say they willl appeal his sentence.
Nishanthan Yogakrishnan, 18 at the time of his arrest, is a Sri Lankan convert to Islam. He was convicted last September and sentenced to 30 months, but credited for time served and released on parole. Yogakrishnan was first person found guilty under anti-terrorism legislation passed by Parliament in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
Amin Durrani, 23, was sentenced yesterday to 7½ years in prison but will be released today on strict parole, having been given extra credit for time already served in custody.
RELEASED
The following have signed peace bonds in which they agreed to undergo rehabilitation and stay out of trouble, and in exchange the Crown agreed not to proceed with their prosecution:
- A father in his mid-40s, described as a spiritual leader to some of the accused.
- A recent university graduate, described by a lawyer as a model citizen.
- A young university student.
- A man originally charged with importing firearms for the group.
- Three young offenders released in February 2007.
Or the Toronto Star.
That is disgusting.
Only a lawyer could refer to an aspiring terrorist as "a model citizen".
Excellent piece by Joe Warmington in the Sun papers:
"Unbelievable would-be killer is returned to our midst"
Mark
Ottawa
We reap what we sow. Counting time served as double time must end.
I'm lost for words.
What kind of message does this send.
We had an opportunity to throw the book at them. Instead, we've told them that plotting to kill fellow citizens is not so bad,
I'm lost for words.
What kind of message does this send.
We had an opportunity to throw the book at them. Instead, we've told them that plotting to kill fellow citizens is not so bad,
Durrani will be subject to strict probationary conditions for three years, along with a lifetime weapons ban and an order to provide a DNA sample to be kept on file. He is also prohibited from leaving Ontario without the court's written consent and from communicating with any members of the Toronto 18 group.
So.......
- Compelled to provide a DNA sample for easy identification; for a terrorist that would want his name in lights as a martyr anyway.
- Probation; for someone who threatened to attack our capital and murder a PM.
- A weapons ban; for someone who obviously has no trouble getting illegal weapons.
- Travel restrictions; when our borders are so porous as they are.
- A non association order; when terrorists have proven to be able to communicate amongst each other via the most primitive means.
What the hell is happening to our country?!
Sorry about DP, but when there is no feedback, tendency is to resubmit.
I certainly hope that the PEO (Professional Engineers of Ontario) refuses membership to Amin Durrani, and ensures that he never practices engineering.
Under their code of ethics:
8.A practitioner shall maintain the honour and integrity of the practitioner's profession and without fear or favour expose before the proper tribunals unprofessional, dishonest or unethical conduct by any other practitioner.
I think I shall send a note off to PEO with a copy of this article asking that they ensure that this "so-called" engineer never be given membership.
- Terrorists; signing peace bonds (LMAO).
- "Life" in prison; but parole in SIX years.
- A terrorist prisoner actively trying to recruit; yet still let back onto our streets.
What the hell is happening to our country?!
Oh please. Spare me your outrage.
Anyone who expected different must be new. How many times have you been stopped lately at a roadblock? Seatbelts and inspection are such a scourge it requires round the clock roadblocks. The latest twist? They now have dogs present to search for lobster eggs.
So, I'm pretty sure the government has figured out they can do whatever they want, no matter how ridiculous, and the fiercest Canadian reaction is a sternly worded letter to their local blog.
The government owns every bit of you, lock, stock and barrel.
Oh please. Spare me your outrage.
Anyone who expected different must be new. How many times have you been stopped lately at a roadblock? Seatbelts and inspection are such a scourge it requires round the clock roadblocks. The latest twist? They now have dogs present to search for lobster eggs.
So, I'm pretty sure the government has figured out they can do whatever they want, no matter how ridiculous, and the fiercest Canadian reaction is a sternly worded letter to their local blog.
The government owns every bit of you, lock, stock and barrel.
Is this not an invitation to terrorists to come here, be "model citizens" for a period of time while plotting an attack? After all, even if they get caught, they'll be handled according to the Trudeau Charter. Hell,if they are Canadian citizens they can even vote while in jail.
It's too bad Canadians don't have a history of "taking back their gov't by all means necessary." What's the use of having tough laws when the judiciary who are charged with enforcing them do not. It's a shame that judges here in Canada are not elected like those in the US.
It's too bad Canadians don't have a history of "taking back their gov't by all means necessary." What's the use of having tough laws when the judiciary who are charged with enforcing them do not. It's a shame that judges here in Canada are not elected like those in the US.
Outrage at TheStar
Indeed, an argument can be made that over the long term, those who commit crimes for political reasons are less dangerous than those who commit crimes for money…In short, [Justice] Durno treated the bomb plot not as the action of irredeemable monsters but as a crime, albeit a heinous one, committed by specific and changeable humans.
Why was none of them deported???
Why is the government so hell bent on keeping the terrorists in this country???
Why is Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad living in Brantford, ON for 20 since ordered deported for lying about his terrorism conviction while young people from the USA who have hurt no one but deserted from the military are fast tracked for deportation???
There is clear pattern of preferential treatment of the terrorists over non-violent offenders.
DEPORT THEM ALL to where they have come from. By catapulting into the ocean if possible, please.
Is there a handbook?
Plead guilty in the morning, Show remorse & Out for supper by Noon.
Uhm, Aaron, some of them were born -here-. No place to deport them to. As far as I know they are all naturalized citizens of Canada, making them our problem. Which we as a nation are not dealing with.
Kate's over-all point is very well taken, the courts are very much a part of enabling these types of attacks. This was not a bunch of guys talking BS over beers, they were pretty well along
with their plans. They had weapons already and were getting set to construct their bombs. Their guilt is not in question, not at all. For them to get off with less than "you'll never see daylight again, a-holes" is appallingly stupid.
This will of course change, right after one of these groups pulls off a terror plot and blows something up. THEN the gloves will come off, and the pendulum will swing all the way the other way with mass deportations, hangings, shoot-first-ask-questions-later policing, the three AM boot through the door and etc.
Because that is stupid in the other direction. Ask the Japanese, they know about Canada. Ask an old German from Kitchener, they know. I don't want to see that.
I don't want to live in f-ing Nazi-style fascism where "enemies of the state" get rounded up and shot every Tuesday night. I also don't want to live in some Israeli nightmare where I have to dodge mortar rounds fired by jihadists out on parole.
I want to live in Canada, where the guilty get JUSTICE and the rest of us can get on with business. CPC listen the hell up.
/.rant mode
But lawyers aren't scumbags. Oh noooooooo.
Phantom at 9:37: well said.
Bud @ 8.54 you got it right. The government of Canada is the largest terorist orginization in Canada. They are much more concerned with turning Canadians in to criminals than protecting them.
If Quebec should ever finally separate, I would hope they include Toronto in the separation package.
Toronto the boar's nest of socialist-come-communist mayors including Red Tory Tiny Perfect David Crombie, , John Sewell, Art Eggleton, June Rowlands, Barbara Hall, and now David Miller. That alone is an indicator, as well, of the mindset of the Toronto Judiciary. (soft on criminals)
Deport the bastards whom would plot to kill us, or at least give them meaningful deterrent sentences!
The courts aren't run by the government or the CPC.
Geez, get a grip. Seven of them made a pinkie swear, that's got to count for something.
Strangers on my flight,
Frank Sinatra
http://www.animatronics.org/strangers/strangers.htm
Excellent article in the Toronto Sun! The sentences were in the range the crown was seeking and under sentencing guidelines.
Why the outrage, didn't you get the memo:
LIFE IS CHEAP...
a moniker that fits to a "T".
Of course the real reason is that the sentencing guidelines were stalled in the Senate, hence the 'Pro-Rogue' consequences.
I wonder if there are any Pro Terrorists around?
Or would that be Pro "T"?
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North"
Persuading young men with a cultural background in east Africa to compete with each other in planning evil acts isn't very difficult when they are faced with such a disconnect between the prosperity and reality found in a western country and the explanations for same offered by those who attempt to strengthen their ancestral beliefs.
The great mistake ignored in our "no-fault refugee claimant" system within the current and past immigration system is that contending participants and their families who have at various times found themselves on the losing sides of third world civil wars use chump Canada as a safe haven to regroup. We should require proof that any accepted so-called refugee claimants were persecuted because they tried to uphold democratic values and were not just unlucky when they chose to support one group of despotic thugs over another.
As to the continuing double time served credit in detention jails, that is the fault of the federal and provincial governments who refuse to provide the mandated facilities and trial infrastructure needed. The fact that the left wing pro-criminal social worker crowd are opposed to such spending for more jails doesn't help either.
A Conservative senate would have had the new laws passed regarding time served and these scumbags would have received real sentences. Prorogue on, PM, and get the senate fixed now.
Unfortunately The Phantom's observations are spot on.
Large chunks of the somnolent citizenry will continue to emulate the three monkeys until something horrific occurs, then the pendulum will likely swing too far in the other direction from the growing backlash.
I suppose on the 'bright' side, over the next decade or so we're going to get a preview of what's to come from Europe. It ain't gonna be pretty.
These weak sentences and the lib-left ideology that spawns them are the symbolic white flag of surrender of the very same faction of our culture.
Meanwhile, the extremists will actually see this in the same way as a raging bull sees the daunting wave of a red flag. It’s a signal to them to charge!
We had better steel ourselves to the fact that another group of “Toronto !8” will emerge. Then another and another and……..until we learn a lesson the old fashioned hard way.
And I do hope I’m wrong, but……
Heck, I am tickled that that they even convicted them and sentenced them to SOMETHING. I feared there would be some major screw up and we would just be discussing compensation.
Thats how low my expectations are.
Fortunately they didn't plan anything really serious like selling wheat across the border without the permission of the wheat board. That would have landed them all in jail.
I hope someone saves Mr. Walkom's article and shows it to him after one of these "redeemable" souls commits and act of terror.
No doubt, Mr. Walkom will insist it was public perception that turned the young man back to a life of terror.
Got to give the STAR some credit though.....at least their consistent in their idiocy.
"This will of course change, right after one of these groups pulls off a terror plot and blows something up. THEN the gloves will come off, and the pendulum will swing all the way the other way with mass deportations, hangings, shoot-first-ask-questions-later policing, the three AM boot through the door and etc."
Hate to disagree,Phantom, but that would only happen in America. In Canada there'd be a whole lot of hand wringing and asking "what did we do wrong that they hate us so much"? Jack Layton would probably head a Royal Commission to investigate.
Followed by more of the same as we're discussing on this post.
To people toughened and embittered from living in third world cultures, we must appear a bunch of naive childlike idiots,I'm certain they laugh at us behind our backs.
Wonder what their recidivism rate will be.
Why are people suprised?
These kinds of sentences are what we should expect from decade after decade of Liberal and Left/Liberal appointments and control of our Canadian Courts and Judiciary
Stephen nailed it.
Phantom - naturalized citizens, you say?
It means that they have sworn allegiance to the Queen and affirmed they will abide by Canadian laws.
They reneged on the oath, that means stripping them of citizenship must be part of the process. Why is no one following up on that?
Once stripped of citizenship, deportation should proceed.
I am shocked that there are apologists for terrorists even here. We should not be looking for an excuse to leave them here, but for the most expedient way to get rid of them.
Government, quit planting terrorists on us, OK?
Thanks Mark in Ottawa, A must read
Todays Joe Warrmingtons column Toronto Sun
**Look at the Comments to the column A bigger must read..
The only advantage to letting them loose is to watch what they are up to. It is a possibility that some have been turned and may lead to other 'youth groups' of a similar bent. I am hopeful that CSIS has their home address, lists of friends and lists of 'special' friends. That is my only ray of hope in this option. The one I like best though is let them rot.
Our courts and society's refusal to enter into a frank discussion about profiling and coming to terms with whom has consistently been responsible for the terror acts committed all over the world, will continue to keep us vulnerable to acts of terrorism.
My wife and I recently went through a metal detector at the airport in Edmonton. We are both caucasians. There were three such detectors at the security screening area with some fifteen security people working there.
My wife and I both went through the metals detectors without causing it to beep.
While my wife was collecting her belongings out of the basket a woman came to her and informed her that she was going to be searched further. The woman then proceeded to pat her down and it was very thorough.
My thoughts at the time was that this was nothing but a make-work project. I hung around the area for a while to see if they would do the same thing to a person of colour. I witnesses three others go through the same thing as my wife - all were white folks. Not a single person of colour was given the whole nine yards.
I'm sure that had a colored person been singled out for the shakedown it would have been looked at as "profiling". Can't have that now can we?
Until we can look at this whole terrorism situation in an honest and realistic manner we continue to be at greater risk. None of the terrorist acts of the last several years, save McVey, has been committed by white folks.
How can one feel safe when someone like my 58 year old white wife gets singled out to be searched for a bomb?
It's almost as if the left-leaning justice system WANTS a terrorist act to occur on Canadian soil, and they're doing what they can to see it happen.
Different Bob,
You can count on those pat downs and more thorough searches of innocent grannies to be one or a combination of the following
1) Padding of safe customers, ie white, non muslim looking and older so as to counter the profiling nature of male, muslim and young
2) They likelyu have quotas, so why not pat down clean (showered) nice and safe passengers. No follow up work likely since nothing will be found.
Everybody read and save the Sun article.
"I'm sure that had a colored person been singled out for the shakedown it would have been looked at as "profiling". Can't have that now can we?"
We need to profile the muzzies at the airports and the old white ladies at the DMV.
Second, the next time I'm a victim of a crime, I'll be sure to ask the assailant if the crime is "politically motivated" or if it's motivated by "greed". Hopefully for my sake it's a "politically motivated" crime.
Why not "Dangerous Offender" status? Retained indefinitely. Perhaps treasonous and terrorist acts and planning could be fast tracked to indefinite detention.
We need a law that makes the use of public transportation mandatory for our politicians and judges.
They should have the same tax structure as the rest of us and have the same safety parameters:
ie. no guns and no armed body guards for protection.
Things won't change until the politicians and judges face the same risks and costs in life that the rest of us do.
One wonder about the sentencing had the "Toronto 18" been white skinheads......
I absolutely can't believe that no one has flagged the idiocy in the Toronto Star of comparing the FLQ to Muslim terrorists. The FLQ was based on politics and race, the other is based on a RELIGION! The "rehab" of the FLQ was based on cultural and political change. The rehab of Muslim terrorists will depend upon something much deeper in their psyche, possibly even a religious change.
If the so-called 'law' can't protect us from those who will not follow it, it is both our duty and responsibility as citizens to be the executors of our own security.