RCMP paid civilian source during its Habib probe

While investigating Ismael Habib in late 2015, the RCMP was paying a Montreal clothing store owner who was well-connected in the Muslim community to feed them information.

The man was described as a practising Salafist, meaning he followed a strict interpretation of Islam.

He operates a second-hand clothing store on Jean-Talon St.

Montreal’s Muslim community gravitated around the store, an RCMP officer testified at Habib’s trial on Friday.

The officer said the man, in his mid-40s, acted as a mentor to young Muslims in the city and was used to build trust between Habib and the undercover RCMP agents investigating him.

Habib is on trial for trying to leave Canada to commit terrorist acts abroad and giving false information to obtain a passport.

An undercover operation by the RCMP led Habib to believe he was moving up the ranks of an underground crime ring capable of obtaining falsified passports and getting people out of the country from the Port of Montreal.

The RCMP investigation, named Projet Solaire, is still ongoing and targeting other Quebecers believed to have travelled to Syria, it was heard in court on Friday.

The store owner wasn’t technically part of the operation, the RCMP officer overseeing it said on Friday, but was paid every time he handed over information on Habib.

The man had once told the force he “had a feeling” Habib could be a sleeper agent sent back to Canada to commit a terrorist act, the officer said. He couldn’t understand why Habib had come back from Syria in the first place.

The trial has heard Habib was in Syria for two or three months in 2013, where he was filmed whipping a prisoner. ISIL did not exist at the time, but in a filmed conversation with an undercover agent in February, Habib said he wanted to return to Syria to join ISIL.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Charles Montpetit questioned the RCMP officer in charge on why the force had continued running Habib through undercover scenarios when it seemed as though it had already gathered enough information on him.

The officer said the undercover agents needed to get to a point where they could confront Habib with evidence and get him to explain it.

“We weren’t looking for a confession, we were looking for the truth,” the officer said.

“It depends on how you look at the truth,” Montpetit answered.

Habib was arrested in late February after his girlfriend, a woman from Gatineau, contacted police alleging he threatened to blow up her car if she spoke out about his travel plans.

The Crown closed its case on Friday. Montpetit is challenging the admissibility of the evidence gathered during the sting operation, or so-called Mr. Big operation, where undercover agents let a suspect believe he or she is becoming part of a fictitious criminal organization with the goal of eliciting a confession. In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada set limits on how Mr. Big operations can legally be used in a police investigation.