`I will be the model citizen'
Architect of Toronto 18 plot wins day parole
A key architect of the spectacular Toronto 18 terrorism plot to detonate huge truck bombs in Toronto in 2006 was granted day parole, Tuesday.
“I'm just so thankful,” Shareef Abdelhaleem said when told the decision by the Parole Board of Canada, “You will not be sorry.
“I know that you're taking a risk and this is going to be highly mediatized, but in front of all these people and in front of God — I know I said I was not a religious man, but I do believe in God — I will not disappoint you.
“You will never hear from me again.”
Abdelhaleem, 45, was granted six months of day parole to study in Montreal, where he is to reside in an enclosed facility after the halfway house that had previously accepted him withdrew its support.
His release had conditions attached.
He was told not to associate with anyone involved in crime or radicalized activity, not go to Toronto without permission from parole officials, and not have a position of responsibility “in any spiritual or religious activities or groups that share the same beliefs, this includes the mosque,” the parole board said.
He was ordered to attend a de-radicalization treatment program and limited to owning a single cellphone and one SIM card that parole officials had access to.
The decision, which seemed to surprise Abdelhaleem and went against the recommendation of the Correctional Service of Canada, came after a three-hour parole hearing Tuesday.
At the start of his hearing, he said he was so nervous he just vomited; he was heard telling someone at Cowansville Institution in Quebec: “I'm sorry, I'll clean it up.”
The so-called Toronto 18 terror plot arrests were a momentous shock for many Canadians.
There were 18 people originally arrested in sweeping national security raids in June 2006, accused of wide- ranging plans to detonate powerful truck bombs at key financial, military and intelligence targets; there were plans to storm Parliament, the CBC, take hostages and behead the prime minister.
Charges against some were stayed or dropped along the way but Abdelhaleem was the last of them to be convicted. He was named a “key architect” of the bomb plot and received a life sentence without chance of parole for 10 years.
He said he has spent 14 years in prison reflecting on his actions.
Before he joined the plot, he was a successful software developer. He was earning a lot and spending a lot.
“I felt like my presence in the universe had no meaning,” he said. “I felt like an overgrown fat pig whose main purpose in life was to consume more, more, more. And I looked at the whole world around me and there is disasters and suffering.”
It was an attempt to address this malaise that led him to rekindle his interest in his Muslim faith. As he did, he met Zakaria Amara, the plot's ringleader.
“He presented what I now think is a ridiculous plot to try to change the world,” he said. “It seemed like a very fast way to bring about change. It seemed like the right thing to do, I hate to say, back then.”
He said he now sees how
wrong he was: “Definitely the wrong thing to do from all angles — moral, political, practical, anything.
“Thank God we were stopped.”
He said he frequently thinks of the people of Toronto who woke up and read the newspapers “and thought their city was under attack.” He said he particularly feels bad for people who worked in the targeted buildings and learned they might have been killed if the plot succeeded.
He complained, however, of how his prison file was being handled. He was unable to get a transfer to a lower security facility despite promises, and his longtime parole officer, who supported his parole bid, was changed before this hearing with a new officer who did not support it, he said.
His lawyer, Nora Demnati, suggested the special handling stemmed from the high profile and seriousness of the crime rather than legitimate risk assessments.
Abdelhaleem has had a difficult time in prison.
He was shunned by his fellow plotters and, because he did not adhere to prison culture, also by other inmates. Several asked for his cell to be moved away from theirs. He was assaulted at least twice.
The parole board heard he did not try to radicalize, convert or negatively influence other inmates while in prison, but was also impatient with his slow progress toward parole.
He could not be seen at this hearing. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, his parole hearing was held remotely, with audio only available for observers.
When the National Post last saw him, in March 2019, as he unsuccessfully argued for an escorted temporary leave to attend a de-radicalization meeting.
At that parole hearing last year, he was asked if he is a terrorist.
“Not any more,” he answered then. “I would rather die than reoffend.” The answer became darkly comical; the board asked him if he was referencing martyrdom or suicide attacks. He hastily extended his hands imploringly, “No, no, it's just an expression, that's not what I meant,” he said.
This time, he found a less aggressive analogy, saying he would rather get a terrible sickness and “whither” than reoffend, he told the board.
“I will be the model citizen,” he said.
I WILL NOT DISAPPOINT YOU ... YOU WILL NEVER HEAR FROM ME AGAIN.