Terror plotter finds surprising defender
RCMP official testifies in support
One of the RCMP'S national security investigators who helped bring down the shocking Toronto 18 terrorist plots in 2006 testified Wednesday in support of one of those convicted being granted a licence to practise law.
The chorus of supporters for Saad Gaya at Ontario's Law Society Tribunal also includes his former parole officer, university professors, several established lawyers, an imam prominent in extremist rehabilitation and Gaya's wife, who is herself a lawyer.
The tribunal must decide whether Gaya, a convicted terrorist sentenced to 18 years in prison for his part in an al-qaida-inspired plan to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada's spy agency, and a military base, is now “of good character,” a requirement to practise law in Ontario. A criminal conviction is not an automatic no.
Lawyers representing Gaya said the unusual testimony in his favour highlights his remorse and rehabilitation.
RCMP Insp. Marwan Zogheib was part of the national security team that unravelled the terror plots in 2006. He helped investigate, arrest and prosecute Gaya and his terror associates.
Zogheib said Gaya seemed different from the others right from the start. He said Gaya showed remorse and renounced his extremist views early and worked with the RCMP to find ways to counter extremist recruitment and to train officers.
“Saad was the only one with whom a relationship was built,” Zogheib told the tribunal.
“Not many who get convicted with such long sentences are able to bounce back,” he said. “He didn't give up on his education ... he was moving forward with his life.
“He started rebuilding his life one small block at a time.”
Zogheib said he hoped support for Gaya's good character from a police officer who worked to put him in prison “means something” to the tribunal.
Other witnesses spoke similarly over three days of hearings.
The tribunal also heard details of Gaya's disturbing past.
They heard how Gaya joined a jihadist plot in March 2006, when he was a student at Mcmaster University in Hamilton.
By then, the plot had already been infiltrated by police and the meeting where Gaya was recruited by ringleader Zakaria Amara was recorded by the RCMP.
In 2009, Gaya pleaded guilty to commission of an offence for a terrorist group and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He served almost 10 years before his release on parole.
After prison, Gaya attended York University's Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and graduated with a law degree. He currently works at a Toronto law firm as an articling student.
He applied to be licensed by the Law Society of Ontario and disclosed his terrorism past in his application. It raised obvious concern at the law society, where “good character” is a requirement for becoming a lawyer.
Gaya addressed the tribunal, both orally and in writing.
“The plot was a terrible crime,” he said, calling it “disgusting,” and a “grave mistake” for a “misguided cause.”
“I have to live with that guilt and shame,” he told the panel of three lawyers.
He also detailed his radicalization.
“The year I left my parents' house for university, I was introduced to a more hateful ideology that promoted violence as a means to justify political ends,” he wrote.
“The more I interacted with this group and consumed the extremist literature provided to me, the faster my downhill spiral was into extremism.”
His job was to find facilities the ring could use to execute their attacks. Although the ringleader designated Gaya as one of the drivers of a truck bomb, court heard he did not know this.
He was involved in the plot for three months. He and others were arrested as they unloaded bomb-making materials at the storage facility. “I am grateful the RCMP intervened when it did,” he said.
At the hearing, the law society's counsel, Elaine Strosberg, said the society was advocating neither for nor against his application, but noted points the panel should consider.
Gaya engaged in a plot that would have likely caused death and destruction, Strosberg said, but he also represents “a rare instant of prolonged and continuous commitment to remorse.”
She said a terrorism conviction against a working lawyer would undoubtedly lead to licence revocation and the tribunal must weigh what that means for such a conviction in the past.
Gaya is the third convicted terrorist to apply to the law society for a law licence.
In 2010, the tribunal ruled against Parminder Singh Saini, who before coming to Canada was convicted of hijacking an Air India airliner in the name of militant Sikh separatists; he shot at hostages while in flight, hitting one in the back.
Saini's case was damaged not only by his violence but also by using a bogus passport and name to come to Canada, making a false refugee claim and not being forthcoming with the law society.
In 2020, Suresh Sriskandarajah rekindled debate.
He was accused of being an agent of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, better known as the Tamil Tigers, in Sri Lanka. He pleaded guilty in New York in 2013 to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and was sentenced to two years in prison.