Surrey residents Amanda Korody, believed to be 28 or 29, and John Nuttall, 38, are awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to commit an indictable offense, knowingly facilitating terrorist activity, and possession of an explosive substance, according to the RCMP.
The two were arrested in connection with the July 1 alleged bombing plot outside of the BC legislature in Victoria, BC. According to police, the improvised explosive devices contained nuts, bolts, nails, and other harmful materials. The suspects were apprehended in Abbotsford.
Tom Morino, a lawyer who has previously represented Nuttall, confirmed that the two suspects are a couple, according to CBC News. Nuttall pleaded guilty to a robbery charge in Victoria and was sentenced to an 18-month conditional sentence in 2002. Morino also stated that Nuttall is converted to Islam, but that Islam and al-Qaeda “don’t go hand in hand.”
According to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Wayne Rideout, Korody and Nuttall intended to “create maximum impact and harm to Canadian citizens . . . The suspects were committed to acts of violence and discussed a wide variety of targets and techniques.” The Canada Day festivities in Victoria’s Inner Harbour were attended by more than 40,000 residents.
Some have speculated that the couple’s activities were linked with al-Qaeda, a global militant Islamist organization responsible for many terrorist attacks, including the September 11 World Trade Centre bombings in New York. RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia has claimed that the suspects were “inspired by al-Qaeda” and “self-radicalized,” although he clarified that the attack is considered to be “a domestic threat, without international linkages.”
Claims of al-Qaeda linkages have been challenged by several experts. Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya has described the quote as “misleading.” He explained, “I don’t think we will discover that they had anything at all to do with al-Qaeda . . . Al-Qaeda has never used women. Al-Qaeda converted people who will embrace the cause, who will usually convert and change their names, and these people have Canadian names.”
BC Premier Christy Clark has supported the RCMP’s claims, officially stating, “The RCMP told me what they shared with the public, that these two individuals weren’t linked to anyone else. They were self-radicalized followers of some of the al-Qaeda philosophy and ideology . . . They wanted to hit the heart of our democratic process, because they’re afraid of democracy.” Clark called the scheme itself “profoundly shocking.”
Some have also been critical of the RCMP investigation, and suspect possible police involvement in the bomb-making. In an interview with the Georgia Straight, SFU political scientist Stuart Farson said the RCMP investigation and subsequent apprehension of the suspects “implies there must have been some sort of human-source involvement or very interceptions of communications going on. In terms of actual control of the bombs, that would suggest human sources.”
Farson’s views were echoed by Scott Watson, an expert in international security at the University of Victoria. “It sounds as though [police] were quite confident that they had control over those devices . . . which leads me to suspect they were heavily involved in providing the materials.”
