Domestic Terrorism/Public Attacks on CAF Personnel

[garb811]

No charges against man arrested in Hill incident: Ottawa police

...
On Monday, parliamentary security officers detained Mooney during the Changing of the Guard ceremony on Parliament Hill, where Canadian Armed Forces members perform an almost daily ceremony that has been a colourful summer tradition since 1959.

A video posted online showed several Mounties and parliamentary security officers pinning someone to the ground on the east lawn. Authorities say a small pocket knife was discovered nearby.

Mooney was handed over to Ottawa police who charged him with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon, assault causing bodily harm and failure to comply with a probation order in relation to the Sunday events.

Ottawa police originally said Mooney would face two charges related to the Hill incident, but on Tuesday afternoon the force said it did not plan to lay them.
...

Full story at link.

 

[211RadOp]

Man who attacked soldiers in 2016 shouldn't have been acquitted of terror charges: Crown

Ayanle Hassan Ali attacked soldiers at a military recruitment centre in March 2016

CBC News · Posted: Jun 24, 2019 1:26 PM ET | Last Updated: 39 minutes ago

A man with schizophrenia who was found not criminally responsible after he attacked soldiers at a military recruitment centre in Toronto should be considered his own 'lone wolf terrorist group,' argued crown prosecutors at the Ontario Court of Appeal Monday.

Ayanle Hassan Ali was also acquitted of terror-related charges in May 2018 after Judge Ian MacDonnell said Ali's actions do not fit the intended scope of Canadian terrorism laws.

At the time, MacDonnell said the definition of a terrorist under the criminal code could not apply to "an alleged one-person terrorist group."

On Monday, the Crown said the judge erred in his decision and argued that a terrorist "can be a lone actor," said Federal Crown Jason Wakley.

"Terrorist activity can be committed as readily by an individual — a lone wolf — as it can by a larger group," read the Crown's factum.

"He committed the offences for the benefit of or in association with his own lone wolf 'terrorist group,'" it continued.

Prosecutors are asking for a new trial on the terrorism charges - insisting Ali should have been found not criminally responsible and not acquitted.

For their part, Ali's lawyers argue "Mr. Ali acted alone — driven by his delusions and hallucinations — and not for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group."

Soldiers attacked at Toronto recruitment office

On March 14, 2016, Ali entered a Canadian Forces recruitment office in north Toronto at 4900 Yonge Street, armed with a knife, and attacked uniformed soldiers, leaving at least two with minor injuries. He was then overpowered and subdued.

Ali repeatedly punched and slashed at one soldier, leaving the man with a three-inch gash on his arm.

He then tried to stab or slash three other military personnel  — one of whom was left with bruises and a "small, superficial nick" — before being subdued, an agreed statement of fact read.

Ali pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault with a weapon, two counts of assault causing bodily harm and one count of carrying a weapon for the purpose of committing an offence, all for the benefit or at the direction of a terror organization.

"The attack was motivated by the defendant's radical religious and ideological beliefs but there is no dispute that the formation of those beliefs was in large part precipitated by mental disorder," the judge said in his decision at the time.

"One of the beliefs that the defendant had formed in his mentally disordered state was that killing Canadian military personnel was justified because the military was fighting in Muslim lands."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ayanle-hassan-ali-crown-appeal-1.5187613

 

[The Bread Guy]

Man who attacked soldiers in 2016 shouldn't have been acquitted of terror charges: Crown

Ayanle Hassan Ali attacked soldiers at a military recruitment centre in March 2016 ...

An update ...

The federal government failed on Friday to persuade an Appeal Court that a schizophrenic man who attacked a Canadian Forces recruiting centre was a one-person terrorist group.

In upholding the acquittal of Ayanle Hassan Ali, Ontario's top court rejected the idea that someone committing a terrorist act could legally be considered to be acting for, or in association with, a group of which the person was the only member.

"When Parliament wishes to describe conduct done for the self-interest of an actor, it uses different language," the Appeal Court ruled. "A person cannot, at one and the same time, commit an offence and be the sole member of a terrorist group for which the offence was committed."

(...)

In May 2018, Superior Court Justice Ian MacDonnell acquitted him of the terror group charge. At the same time, MacDonnell found the mentally ill Ali not criminally responsible for offences that included attempted murder and assault with a weapon.

"The kind of lone-wolf criminal conduct engaged in by the defendant was not intended to be captured by Section 83.2," the judge ruled. "Parliament understood that such conduct was subject to prosecution under the existing provisions of the Criminal Code."

The prosecution, which argued at trial that Ali had acted as a "terrorist group of one," appealed only the acquittal. It called for a new trial on that issue alone.

In its submissions, the government maintained that the relevant law could apply to a "lone wolf" who commits a crime to advance the goals of his own self-constituted terrorist group. It argued MacDonnell made several errors in rejecting that interpretation, saying that excluding the solo actor would undermine Parliament's preventative purpose in enacting the anti-terrorist legislation.

The defence countered that MacDonnell was correct.

The Court of Appeal, in its analysis, said the aim of the law was to suppress terrorist activity but that interpreting the wording of any provision had to start from the principle that lawmakers did not intend to produce absurd results.

"The position the appellant advances — that the principal and the terrorist group may be one and the same person — is inconsistent with the modern principle of statutory interpretation," the appellate court found. "It is a reasonable inference that Parliament did not intend that s. 83.2 would apply to the lone wolf terrorist."

(...)

More @ link - Ontario Court of Appeal decision attached

 

[The Bread Guy]

Good question ...

Can new federal unit address Canada's 'inconsistent track record' in terrorism prosecutions?
Since Canada’s adoption of the Anti-terrorism Act in 2001, 56 people have been charged with terrorism-related offences in this country. The outcomes have been mixed
Douglas Quan, National Post, January 2, 2020 2:43 PM EST

National security and legal experts say they’re hopeful Ottawa’s plan to create a new office specializing in terrorism prosecutions will improve this country’s track record of holding accountable those who threaten public safety.

“It’s been an inconsistent track record,” said Phil Gurski, a former CSIS analyst and president of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. “My initial reaction is ‘yay,’ but the form this thing takes dictates whether it means anything. The devil is in the details.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently directed the ministers of justice and public safety in their mandate letters to “coordinate efforts to prosecute terror suspects to the fullest extent of the law” and create a new office of Director of Terrorism Prosecutions.

Since Canada’s adoption of the Anti-terrorism Act in 2001, 56 people have been charged with terrorism-related offences in this country.

The outcomes have been mixed.

In February, federal prosecutors announced that Rehab Dughmosh had been sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of leaving Canada to participate in the activities of a terrorist group and other offences. Prosecutors said she had tried to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State in April 2016 and used a knife and a golf club to assault people at a Canadian Tire store in Scarborough, Ont., in June 2017.

When Ayanle Hassan Ali went on a knife rampage at a Canadian Forces recruiting centre in Toronto in 2016, injuring two people, federal prosecutors took the position he did so for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group of which he was the only member. But the trial judge found him not guilty of the terror charge and found him not criminally responsible for other offences, including attempted murder, on account of mental disorder.

The Crown tried to make the case on appeal that a “lone wolf” can commit an act of terror to advance his own self-constituted terrorist group. But the appeal was recently dismissed by the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Citing errors in jury selection, Ontario’s top court this past summer ordered a new trial for Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier who were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for the benefit of a terrorist group and for participating in terrorist activity in relation to a plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train ...

More @ link

- OP edit to add link - with thanks to JM -

 

[brihard]

A dedicated unit that pools specialized prosecutorial expertise should be helpful, to be sure.

Counterterrorism investigations are complicated, to say the lease. In an ideal investigation a threat would be identified early, and a prolonged and well resourced investigation would watch the development of a plot, the establishing of contacts, and gathering of materials, the identification and communication of targets... There would be combinations of physical surveillance, Part VI communications intercepts, maybe undercover plays, surreptitious access to and examination of computers... all culminating with a glorious door kick just before they assemble the bomb or what have you. The investigation would have proceeded at a pace that allowed all steps to be documented immediately and thoroughly, and investigative avenues pursued systematically as they arose.

Then you get the threats that develop quickly- maybe off the back of a thinly detailed advisory letter from CSIS, or some human source info of questionable validity. Investigators, often without all the resources they would ideally need, have to piece together what they can quickly, triage the threat (if there really is one), and then figure out how mature the threat is and if something is close to going bang. A thorough criminal investigation may not be possible, and police may need to kick a door, make an arrest on what they've got, and disrupt an imminent threat before an investigation is thoroughly matured. This can leave a lot of holes that can be challenging to prosecutors.

Add to that, once we're sharing national security/intelligence information into an investigation, and you may be seeing some tricky Canada Evidence Act exclusions on grounds of National Security, National Defence, or International Relations. These can lead to their own entirely separate hearings that can delay trials, preliminary hearings, etc. Crown has to be adept at handling these matters.

Just as police have created specialized units to investigate this stuff, and to know the case law and how tools are appropriately used, it makes sense to me that crown needs to do the same.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Jesus wept...

 

[daftandbarmy]

Jesus wept...

We're not alone and, based on what I understand the sneaky peekies need to do a good job, it's not necessarily a good thing...



UK spy agencies criticised for lack of black leaders

MI6 and MI5 had no one from minority ethnic background in a top post, MPs find

The UK’s intelligence agencies suffer from a lack of black and Asian staff in top posts, according to a report from the parliamentary intelligence and security committee published on Wednesday.

Neither MI6, which deals with overseas intelligence-gathering, nor MI5 had any people from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background in the top posts in 2016-17. The surveillance agency GCHQ was the only agency listed as having any staff at a senior level from a BAME background.

The spy agencies have over the last few years made a big play about the need for more diversity in recruitment. The head of MI6, Alex Younger, has said he wants a more diverse staff to be part of his legacy.

The report also found a lack of gender balance.

The report describes the lack of BAME staff in senior posts as “lamentable”. On lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, the report records 3% of staff at MI6 choosing to declare themselves as LGBT, 4.4% in MI5 and 1.3% in GCHQ.

“It is not clear why the declaration rates for the agencies are lower for this group than for staff declaring as BAME, particularly as the LGBT groups across the agencies and organisations are high profile and well-established,” the report says.

Work on the report began in December 2016.

Grieve complained about a lack of data, particularly in relation to recruitment. “To gain a clear understanding of diversity across the intelligence community, robust data is essential. Until an organisation knows where it stands and how it is performing, it cannot define and deliver progress,” he said.

“This means that no organisation’s commitment to diversity and inclusion can be taken seriously until it collects, scrutinises and is transparent with its workforce data and can measure its progress accordingly. Unfortunately the current data across the intelligence community is not sufficiently robust.”

A government spokesperson said: “The intelligence and security community needs to attract and draw upon the skills, talent and experience of all sectors of our society in order to continue its vital work effectively.

“As the report states, we have made significant progress in recent years, but there is clearly more to do. We remain committed to further improving this and will give full consideration to the conclusions and recommendations of the ISC’s report and respond formally in due course.”


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/18/uk-spy-agencies-criticised-for-lack-of-black-leaders-mi6-mi5

 

[Jarnhamar]

Jesus wept...

We should go to that as our own little tiger team.

 

[The Bread Guy]

In you stay, then ...

A woman imprisoned for an ISIS-inspired attack at a Toronto Canadian Tire store has threatened to conduct another terrorist attack once she is released from prison, documents obtained by Global News show.

“If you release me from jail, I will do another terrorist attack, so tell your government to send me back to my country (Syria),” Rehab Dughmosh wrote in a note to her parole officer in February.

The incident was one of several cited by the Parole Board of Canada in a decision Monday denying Dughmosh’s bid to be released on parole. The ruling followed a review on Thursday.

“Given your continued commitment to a terrorist organization, and ongoing indications that you will commit a terrorist attack if released, the board do not consider your risk to re-offend violently is manageable at this time,” the decision read ...

 

[dimsum]

In you stay, then ...

So...no rehab for Rehab I guess.

 

[Good2Golf]

Yup, Rehab is unrehabitabilizable

 

[The Bread Guy]

Ten years on ...

Ottawa remembers reservist killed in Parliament Hill attack one decade later

Ottawa marked the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on Parliament Hill Tuesday, but for the family of the reservist who was killed that day the memory is still raw.

www.thecanadianpressnews.ca