BRAMPTON, Ont. - A Brampton court is scheduled to pore over the wiretap evidence against the last youth charged in an alleged homegrown terror plot after the much-anticipated testimony of a police informant was delayed Monday.
On the two-year anniversary of the arrests of the so-called "Toronto 18,'' Mubin Shaikh, the Crown's star witness, was scheduled to testify Monday at the trial of a young offender.
But that testimony has been delayed until next Monday while lawyers for both sides argue over how much is admissible. The defence argues much of Shaikh's evidence is hearsay and the court should instead rely on testimony from the alleged co-conspirators.
Shaikh's testimony is considered pivotal to the Crown's case in the trial of a man charged two years ago along with 17 others in connection with an alleged plot to attack power grids, Canada's spy agency, the CBC, the RCMP and the nuclear power plant in Pickering, Ont.
The 20-year-old accused cannot be identified because he was a youth at the time of the alleged offences.
Defence lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky questioned the reliability of Shaikh's testimony, especially when the Crown could summon some of the adults who were charged alongside the young offender.
The court is expected to hear wiretap evidence Tuesday which, combined with Shaikh's testimony, makes up the bulk of the Crown's case.
Defence lawyers have questioned the strength of the Crown's case against the suspects after charges against seven of the accused men were stayed, whittling the so-called "Toronto 18'' down to 11.
On Friday, Chernovsky suggested the alleged terror plot, outlined by police two years ago amid a blaze of national and international publicity, was little more than a "fantasy.''
