The Canadian public has failed to fathom the true scope of the havoc planned in an alleged militant plot to attack targets in southern Ontario, a CSIS informant testified Tuesday.

Mubin Shaikh appeared in a Brampton, Ont., court to give testimony in the trial of the only youth accused of being part of the alleged 2006 plot.

"I'm disturbed at how people have played this off," Shaikh, who is in his early 30s, told court. "We weren't there picking daisies, that's for sure."

Shaikh infiltrated an alleged home-grown cell in 2005 and helped the RCMP gather hundreds of hours of secret audio surveillance.

Eighteen Muslim teens and men were arrested two years ago. Since then, charges against seven have been stayed due to a lack of sufficient evidence.

Shaikh began his much-anticipated testimony in a Brampton, Ont., courtroom by detailing how he infiltrated the group of alleged militants. He told court that the alleged plot was well-developed before he became involved with the conspirators.

Shaikh was working for CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and was told by the spy agency to get to know the suspects, befriend them and win their trust.

He did this by meeting them at social events and convincing them that he was willing and able to carry out terrorist attacks.

'Two birds with one bomb'

The group's alleged leader appeared to trust him almost immediately, he said. The stated objective was to cripple infrastructure and create chaos; to kill people with assault rifles and truck bombs.

"He was not coy about his intentions, his motivations," he said. "I don't know still to this day why he was that open. I was his trainer. I was his security guy."

The man soon produced a firearm magazine and hollow-point rounds, he added.

"See these?" he quoted the man as saying. "These are cop killers."

On one occasion, they went gun shopping, Shaikh said. At one store, the accused leader asked the gun store owner if he sold assault rifles. They left empty-handed.

It only took a few meetings, Shaikh said, before the leaders recruited him to run a training camp that was being planned.

He said they wanted him to get the suspects ready and the camp should teach military manoeuvres, which he had learned as a teenaged army cadet.

Shaikh then digressed in his testimony, lamenting how some have already made fun of the camp, describing it as little more than a paintball fight in the woods.

Shaikh insisted it was nothing of the kind, adding it was a serious attempt to train a group of men to commit acts of terror against the RCMP, CSIS, Parliament and the CBC.

"Two birds with one bomb, I guess," Shaikh said.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

With files from the Canadian Press