IN DEPTH: TORONTO BOMB PLOT CASE
Quotes: What they said
CBC News Online | July 14, 2006
Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner, RCMP:
"This group posed a real and serious threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out attacks. Our investigation and arrests prevented the assembly of any bombs and the attacks being carried out."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
"This morning, Canadians awoke to the news that our law enforcement and national security agencies have arrested 17 individuals for terrorism-related offences. These individuals were allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people.
"As we have said on many occasions, Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism. Through the work and co-operation of the RCMP, CSIS, local law enforcement and Toronto's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), acts of violence by extremist groups may have been prevented.
"Today, Canada's security and intelligence measures worked. Canada's new government will pursue its efforts to ensure the national security of all Canadians."
Luc Portelance, CSIS:
"It is important to know that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community or ethno-cultural group in Canada. Terrorism is a dangerous ideology, and a global phenomenon. As yesterday's arrests demonstrate, Canada is not immune from this ideology."
Toronto Mayor David Miller:
"These arrests show the process is working. It's like a bank robbery. If you know a group of people is going to rob a bank, you arrest them before they're in the bank. That's what CSIS and the RCMP did."
Bill Blair, Toronto police chief:
"I am very content that the apprehension of these individuals has neutralized the threat."
Jack Hooper, deputy director of CSIS (On May 29, 2006, before the Senate defence committee, on the possibility of "home-grown terrorists" in Canada):
"We know who and where some of them are."
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day
"Obviously, anybody who's collecting three tons of ammonium nitrate isn't doing it for purposes of fertilizing their gardens. There was very serious intent here."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
"This shows that the Canadians are on the job. That's what it really shows."
New York Republican Peter King, chairman of the House of Representatives homeland security committee.
"I think it's a disproportionate number of al-Qaeda in Canada because of their very liberal immigration laws, because of how political asylum is granted so easily."
Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the United States
"I disagree with what the chairman has said."
Hussein Hamdani — of the Ihya Foundation in Toronto, a grassroots organization that tries to promote a better understanding of Islam — on people who commit violence in the name of religion.
"These are just criminals who usurp a religion."
Husain Patel, the Canadian Council of Muslim Theologians
"The accused are innocent until proven guilty, but if they are proven guilty after given due process then this is a wakeup call, especially for Muslim leaders."
Toronto police chief Bill Blair
"There are always uninformed, ignorant idiots who will go out and try to express some anger and misdirect it against totally innocent people, and any anger directed at the wider Muslim community in Toronto would be totally misdirected and based on ignorance."
David Harris, former chief of strategic planning with CSIS
"We should be desperately concerned. We've seen a trend in the western world … of, especially, young folk who have citizenship, or long time residents, you would have thought they would have grown up with … the liberal, democratic pluralist values … of our charter system …. There are large questions about whether there isn't a radicalism growing deep within Canada."
Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the U.S.
"Canada is just as diligent and successful in fighting terrorists as the Americans."
Sheik Hussein Patel, representing the Canadian Council of Muslim Theologians, a group of more than 100 scholars.
"Any threat to Canada poses a threat to Muslims in Canada as well."
Cpl. Bryan Trochim, Canadian soldier stationed in Afghanistan, told Canadian Press.
"It does kind of bring home the point a little bit more that these guys are in your backyard. Every time you think about anything that's happening anywhere around the globe, it could easily be your home any day."
Muhammad Alam, president of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto.
"Canadian Muslims absolutely condemn an act of violence or threat of violence."
Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, told CBC Radio on Monday.
"There is a chance we could be arresting more people. We
are following up every lead to the nth degree, and any person
that has aided, facilitated or participated in this threat will
be arrested."
Mubin Shaikh, a prominent member of Toronto's Indo-Canadian Muslim community who spent more than two years as a paid informant for CSIS in the bomb plot investigation, much of the time with the alleged suspects.
He described the suspects as "fruitcakes … with the capacity to do some real damage."
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