TORONTO TERRORISM CASE – For the families – fear and bewilderment – The arrest of an alleged Toronto terrorist ring on June 2, 2006, was initially hailed as an intelligence coup. Now the case seems far less clear-cut. Meanwhile, the family of one accused continues to wait – and suffer
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA – History will record June 2, 2006 as the day when police arrested members of what they claimed was Canada’s first homegrown Islamic terrorist conspiracy. But in a modest middle-class section of Oakville, Rukhsana Gaya – then a department store cosmetics manager – remembers that day as the moment her family’s life was shattered.
“The phone rang about 11 p.m. My husband answered. It was the RCMP. They said Saad (her son, then 18) had been arrested on terror-related charges. My husband told me and I said: `What do they mean, terrorism?’ Of course, I knew about 9/11. Everyone does. But not that it would affect my family. Not that it would have anything to do with me.”
In the lexicon of terror trials, Rukhsana Gaya is what is known as a family member. Her son was one of the 17 young Muslim Canadian men arrested that night in June (an 18th was picked up later) when police swooped in to forestall what they claimed was an Islamist plot to blow up buildings and behead the prime minister.
Today Saad remains jailed at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton awaiting trial on charges of terrorism and intending to cause an explosion. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
But 22 months after his arrest, the case of the Toronto 18 – which at the time was lauded by politicians as a spectacular intelligence coup – appears far less clear-cut. Three of the 18 have had their charges stayed (in effect, dropped) and been quietly released.
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