Ottawa youth found guilty of terrorism charges in plot against Jewish community

OTTAWA · An Ottawa youth has been found guilty of two terrorism-related charges for his role in a 2023 conspiracy to kill Jewish people in the city. Ontario Superior Court Justice Kerry McVey delivered the verdict on Friday, convicting the young person of conspiracy to commit murder through involvement with a terrorist group and facilitating terrorist activity by seeking to acquire a prohibited firearm. The judge acquitted him on a third charge of facilitating terrorist activity by making instructional material and propaganda available. The youth, who cannot be named due to his age, had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

McVey concluded the youth conspired with a co-accused and another uncharged individual in a plan to kill a large number of people. "The planned attack was intended to intimidate a segment of the public, namely members of the Jewish community, with respect to their security," McVey said. She said the attack was intended to cause serious harm through violence. The judge detailed that communications between the participants included discussions about the scale of the intended killing, required weapons, ammunition and the possible use of explosives. "Their shared objective was the mass killing of innocent people," McVey said.

The Crown alleged that in the summer of 2023, the youth and his co-accused communicated regularly online and shared violent extremist material. By August of that year, McVey said the two clearly shared an interest in violent extremist content and expressed hostility toward particular communities, including Jewish people. The material sent included videos created by the extremist Islamic State group and documents about firearms, explosives and methods of killing. According to the Crown, these communications evolved, and by late October 2023 a concrete plan had emerged to carry out a mass casualty attack in which the co-accused intended to take his own life.

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McVey found the youth not guilty on the charge related to sharing material because she was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew he was furthering a terrorist activity at the time. "The issue before me is not whether the content was offensive, alarming, or extremist in nature," she said. "The question is whether the Crown has established beyond a reasonable doubt that [the teen] transmitted it for the purpose of assisting a terrorist activity." The judge said she was not satisfied his co-accused's plans had advanced that far when the material was shared.

However, McVey found the youth guilty on the other two counts because his actions later became concrete. She said that when he became aware of the plan for a large-scale attack, he did more than express support. "I find nothing in [the teen's] communications that reasonably suggests he was anything other than serious," McVey said. The judge noted he contacted potential sources of firearms, made inquiries about availability and pricing, and relayed information back to his co-accused. "Put simply, attempting to obtain an assault rifle for use in a preplanned, religiously and ideologically motivated mass shooting plainly facilitates that terrorist activity," McVey said.

After delivering the verdict, McVey addressed the youth directly. "Based on all of the evidence, I am satisfied that you genuinely intended to help advance this act of deadly violence," she said. She explained the young person was a participant in the conspiracy, even though he did not intend to fight or die as part of it. "In Canada, people are not prosecuted for holding unpopular, offensive or extremist views," McVey told him. "You are not being found guilty because of what you believed. You are being found guilty because of what you did. The evidence establishes that your beliefs led you to take concrete steps with others toward the commission of terrorist activity."

The youth was 15 years old when he was arrested in February 2024. His trial began in April, a day after his co-accused was found guilty on four charges in an unusual one-day trial. The co-accused, who also cannot be named, pleaded not guilty but admitted to a statement of facts and invited a judge to find him guilty, a move that preserved his right to appeal pretrial rulings and the findings of guilt. The Crown told the court it will be seeking an adult sentence for the youth convicted on Friday.

With files from The Canadian Press, Global News and CBC News