Canada prime minister reportedly target of plot

updated 4:28 p.m. ET June 7, 2006

TORONTO - At least one member of a group of terror suspects plotted to storm Canada's parliament and behead officials, including the prime minister, if Muslim prisoners in Canada and Afghanistan were not released, according to charges made public Tuesday.

Authorities also alleged that in addition to targeting Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Steven Vikash Chand plotted to take over media outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

“There’s an allegation apparently that my client personally indicated that he wanted to behead the prime minister of Canada,” attorney Gary Batasar said. “It’s a very serious allegation. My client has said nothing about that.”

Chand is a 25-year-old restaurant worker from Toronto. Charges were expected to be read against at least some of the other suspects Tuesday.

Batasar spoke outside the courthouse, where bail hearings for 10 of the 17 suspects were postponed.

He said the charges were based on fear-mongering by government officials.

NBC VIDEO Terror connections spanned borders June 6: Canadian terrorist suspects’ connections spanned U.S.-Canadian border, international datelines. NBC’s Pete Williams reports. Nightly News

Police expect more arrests, while intelligence officers sought ties between 12 men accused of scheming to blow up Canadian targets and five other teen suspects and Islamic terror cells in the United States and five other countries.

The Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton, a small city just west of Toronto, said Monday the men arrested over the weekend were charged with participating in a terrorist group. Other charges include importing weapons and planning a bombing.

The charges against the five minors were not made public.

Sermons ‘filled with hate’
Toronto Mayor David Miller said CN Tower, a downtown landmark, and the city’s subway were not targets as had been speculated in local media, but declined to identify sites that were.

A Muslim leader who knew the oldest suspect, 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, told The Associated Press that Jamal’s sermons at a local mosque were “filled with hate” against Canada.

Authorities said more arrests were expected, possibly this week, as police pursue leads about a group that they say was inspired by the violent ideology of the al-Qaida terror network.

“We’ve by no means finished this investigation,” Mike McDonell, deputy commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told AP. “In fact, you might look at it that, really, we’re just starting with the arrests. We have a responsibility to follow every lead.”

‘Foreign connections’ alleged
Although both Canadian and U.S. officials said over the weekend there was no indication the purported terror group had targets outside Ontario, McDonell told AP on Monday that there are “foreign connections,” but he would not elaborate.

Responding to the arrests, the U.S. Border Patrol stepped up inspections of traffic entering the country from Canada and put agents on high alert along the 4,000-mile border.

In Washington, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House said President Bush spoke with Harper about the case Monday afternoon, but gave no specifics of what was discussed.

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