A young person charged as the alleged “co-conspirator” of a planned terrorist attack against Jewish people was found guilty Friday of two of the three charges against him.
He’s convicted of committing a terrorist offence by conspiring to commit murder in late 2023 and facilitating a terrorist activity by seeking to acquire a prohibited firearm in December 2023.
Justice Kerry McVey told the Ottawa court that she was satisfied that the teen had joined a conspiracy, and that his discussions about obtaining a firearm were sincere.
“I find nothing in [the teen’s] communications that reasonably suggests he was anything other than serious,” she said.
He was found not guilty on a different count of facilitating terrorist activity by making available and exchanging instructional material and propaganda in late 2023.
McVey said she was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the teen knew the person he was sending “unquestionably disturbing” material to was contemplating a terrorist attack.
“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 Crown told court they will be seeking an adult sentence.
The Ottawa resident was 15 when he was arrested in February 2024.
A second Ottawa teen was found guilty of four charges in April after an unusual one-day trial that preserves his rights to appeal.
Neither teen’s name can be published due to a routine ban preventing the identities of charged youths from becoming public.
