Police comments in B.C. terror case ‘over the top,’ lawyer says

The lawyer for one of the two accused of plotting a terrorist attack at the B.C. legislature on Canada Day says he is troubled with the way police used a ‘Mr. Big’ undercover operation during the investigation.

Tom Morino said comments from police about his client John Stewart Nuttall and co-accused Amanda Korody have been “over the top” and he has serious concerns about the use of undercover agents during their arrests.

“While it is very premature, it is my understanding there was, as we have all come to know it, a Mr. Big operation component to this investigation,” he said.

“I think it’s safe to assume that various people who were seen by the neighbours were likely undercover officers.”

Nuttall, 38, and Korody, 29, were arrested July 1 in Abbotsford, B.C. and are charged with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity, possession of an explosive substance and conspiring to commit an indictable offence.

Morino said he is concerned that many of the police comments made following the arrests, including those that linked the pair with the concept of self-radicalization, were not objective.

“I think in the fullness of time, the evidence will come out that will, perhaps, undermine some of what they were suggesting,” he said on Tuesday, following a court appearance by the accused at Surrey Provincial Court.

Crown counsel Martha Devlin said Tuesday the Crown will proceed with a direct indictment, which means the case will skip a preliminary hearing and go directly to Supreme Court.