BRAMPTON, Ont. – A member of the "Toronto 18" terrorist group was sentenced to seven years Friday, ending a week that also saw a Quebec man convicted of terrorism charges and another man plead guilty to participating in a Toronto bomb plot.
Justice Bruce Durno sentenced Ali Mohamed Dirie to a seven-year prison term for his role in a 2006 plot to stage terrorist attacks in southern Ontario in protest of Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan.
Dirie, a 26-year-old Somali-born Canadian, was caught smuggling handguns and ammunition into Canada for the Islamist terror group, which he admitted had intended to carry out attacks to advance extremist religious beliefs.
"Terrorism offences strike at the heart of Canadian values and society," the judge said, as Dirie, his mother, brother and cousin sat listening. "The intentions were to use loaded guns to attempt to effect change in Canada’s foreign policy, to resort to violence to protest violence, to use guns and not ballots to effect change, and to commit violent acts."
But Dirie will be eligible to apply for parole in one year and he will be released no later than 2011, since the judge gave him five years of credit for the time he has already spent in prison since his arrest. The judge refused a request by the defence to release Dirie on Thursday.
Dirie’s sentencing followed the conviction on the same day, of Said Namouh, a Moroccan living in Quebec, and the guilty plea entered on Monday by Montreal-born Saad Gaya, another member of the "Toronto 18" group, who had been selected to drive a bomb-laden truck to its target.
Dirie was portrayed in court as a less than ideal inmate. Since his arrest, he has spent part of his jail time scheming to buy more guns and trying to recruit inmates into the terrorist group, the Crown said.
He also struck a corrections officer, tried to dupe the National Parole Board and was caught on police wiretaps calling white people the "No. 1 filthiest people on the face of the planet. They don’t have Islam, they’re the most filthiest people" and that, "In Islam, there is no racism, we only hate kufar (non-Muslims)."
Robert Nuttall, the defence lawyer, told the court that Dirie was passionately opposed to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, but now recognizes he was wrong to believe that terrorist violence was a solution.
The arrests of the "Toronto 18" followed lengthy investigations by CSIS, RCMP and other police forces into homegrown Canadian extremists inspired by al-Qaida.
One faction of the group had planned to storm the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, while the other was preparing truck bombings in Toronto and at an Ontario military base. Police arrested 18 suspects before any attacks occurred. Seven were later released, but four have either been convicted or pleaded guilty. Seven others are awaiting trial.
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