A 17-year-old’s trial on domestic terrorism charges has begun, with federal Crown prosecutors arguing that he planned to help kill Jewish people in Ottawa “by seeking a prohibited firearm to be used” by another teen in late 2023.
The young man on trial pleaded not guilty to all three charges against him Thursday morning in Superior Court, then sat in the public gallery with his father to hear the Crown’s opening statement. He was granted bail under strict conditions this past October.
Lawyers Kim Hyslop, Omar Abou El Hassan and Leo Russomanno are representing the teen, with Justice Kerry McVey presiding.
The teen is charged with:
Committing an offence for a terrorist group by conspiring and agreeing with the other teen — as well as someone who went by the aliases “Klm” and “Gh D” and a person or persons unknown — to commit murder from August 2023 into December 2023.
Facilitating terrorist activity by making available and exchanging instructional material and propaganda from August 2023 into November 2023.
Facilitating terrorist activity by seeking to acquire a prohibited firearm in December 2023.
On Wednesday, a 17-year-old co-accused in the case was found guilty of four terrorism charges in an unusual one-day trial that preserves his right to appeal pre-trial motions and the findings of guilt.
The guilty findings against the other teen have no effect on the accused’s trial, which is now running separately after the indictment was essentially split in two. The charges against the accused have not been proven and he remains innocent.
Neither teen’s name can be published due to a routine ban preventing the identities of charged youths from becoming public.
Federal Crown prosecutors will be arguing to have the teen sentenced as an adult. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
‘Didn’t want to die for the cause’
Federal Crown Kelly Reitsma told court Thursday that unlike the teen found guilty Wednesday, the accused “didn’t want to die for the cause [in support of ISIS].”
Instead, he was trying to find an illegal submachine gun that the guilty teen would use and shared and received large quantities of instructional and propagandic materials, Reitsma alleged.
He was arrested by INSET — an RCMP-led team of law enforcement and intelligence partners that handles threats to national security — in February 2024, a couple months after the guilty teen.
Expected witnesses for the Crown include experts on ISIS and explosives, as well as RCMP analysts and investigators who will testify about seized electronic devices, graphic videos, internet searches and social media chats.
The first witness was Const. Leona Raths. She testified that the accused was identified as a person of interest after the guilty teen’s electronic devices were seized and analyzed, and that 24-hour surveillance of the accused began soon after.
The trial continues.