1991 Toronto bomb plot

In 1991, Canadian authorities arrested five men of Trinidadian and Dominican ethnicity, and accused them of ties to Jamaat ul-Fuqra and plotting to bomb a Hindu temple and Indian theatre in the Greater Toronto Area.Tabor, Mary B. New York Times, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2DE1130F935A25753C1A965958260&scp=6&sq=canadian+arrested+terrorism&st=nyt A Trial in Canada Is Watched in U.S.] , October 16 1993]

Arrests

Four of the men tried to cross the Peace Bridge into the United States in October 1991. Customs officials searched their Buick and Chevrolet Suburban and found "detailed plans to bomb a York Region Hindu temple and an Indian theater in Toronto", including aerial photographs and blueprints of the Vishnu Mandir Temple and India Centre cinemaBell, Stewart. National Post, "Extremists train at communes", June 22, 2006] , as well as references to a "hit team," a "guard team" and "recon team", and amateur videotapes of the men, and the interiors of the buildings.

Each of the men were charged with conspiracy to commit mischief and conspiracy to commit murder.

Trial

The trial was moved to St. Catharines from Toronto, and began in October 1993 Assistant Crown Attorney Philip Enright described documents found in the defendents' cars that suggested entering a building through a men's washroom window, and possibly having a female operative planting a bomb in the women's washroom.

It was revealed that the Chevrolet searched at the border belonged to American Wilfred Savary, and that the men had phoned him thirty times from the car phone in the vehicle. A search of Savary's apartment revealed nine semi-automatic firearms.Anti-Defamation League, [http://www.adl.org/extremism/moa/al-fuqra.pdf Al-Fuqra - Holy Warriors of Terrorism] ]

The three Americans were deported from Canada after their sentences were completed in April 2006, and Harris was added to the TSA's no-fly list [http://www.9news.com/pdfs/TSA-No-Fly-list.pdf] , as was Wesley and his aliases "Robert Fitz Clarence", "Bobby Johnson" and "Wali Muhammad". [Boston Herald, "Plane Truth: Authors Find Five Years After 9/11, No-Fly Lists Mismanaged, Out of Date " (book review), October 29 2006]

References