Screw Stephen Harper? Screw? Language, boys.
I wonder if the G and M, for all its foibles, would allow such verbiage in print. One can only guess, not have copyedited for them or being likely to.
I would be laughing, eh? The Battle of Toronto? What is this, 1812?
When Canadians return to Planet Earth, which will be roughly an unknown number of months from now, they will realize that people always have reasons for what they do. And the reasons are usually good, although blowing up other people in peacetime is generally not hugely productive.

BRAMPTON -- A terrorist plot to start the "Battle of Toronto" and blow up two downtown buildings was designed to unleash a mass wave of fear, crippling the economy and forcing Canada to pull troops out of Afghanistan, a court heard yesterday.

The sentencing hearing of Saad Khalid, 22, of Mississauga, one of the so-called Toronto 18, began yester morning before Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno with the reading of a statement of facts -- not contested by the defence -- concerning the events leading up to the June 2006 massive police bust that netted 14 adults and four youths.

The Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service's Toronto offices and an unnamed military base along Hwy. 401 between Toronto and Ottawa were all targets for a planned November 2006 attack.

Rented trucks filled with homemade bombs were to be parked near these locations and they were to be detonated by cellphone.

The ringleader of the group plotting the attack wanted to see the explosions happen on three successive days rather than at the same time in order to maximize the effect on a startled population.

None of the people named in the statement, except for Khalid, can be named under a publication ban ordered by Durno which forbids reporting any names or information that would tend to identify them.

The plot was designed to "screw Stephen Harper, the government and the military," Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson said, reading from the statement. "He thought that as a result of the bombings Canada might withdraw its troops from Afghanistan because it is not tough like Britain or the United States."

The group was planning to concoct bombs using ammonium nitrate and other ingredients including mercury and nitric acid but the contact they were using to acquire the chemicals was actually a police informant.

One of Khalid's co-accused told the informant on May 18, 2006 that "he would like the bomb that is going to be detonated outside the Toronto Stock Exchange to be two tonnes, instead of one, so that it would destroy the whole building and the surrounding three blocks.

"He ... described how there will be blood, glass and debris everywhere. (He) said this will be a war battle, the Battle of Toronto," Michaelson said reading from the statement.

The group had also originally planned to launch the attack at night to minimize the killing of innocent civilians but later decided to change their timetable.

"Casualties would be good because it would prove we are not afraid to kill people," one of the accused said.

Tests done later by the RCMP showed a one-tonne bomb consisting of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel would be the equivalent to 768 kilos of TNT and "would have caused catastrophic damage to a multi-storey glass and steel building 35 metres from the bomb site as well as killing or causing serious injuries to people in the path of the blast waves and force."

But Khalid's role in the plan was minimal, his lawyer, Russell Silverstein, indicated he would argue as the sentencing hearing continues this week.

The Mississauga man was charged with knowingly participating in a terrorist group and receiving training for the purpose of enhancing the ability of a terrorist group but has only pleaded guilty to participating in a terror group "with the intention of causing an explosion or explosions that were likely to cause serious bodily harm or death," or to damage property.

The statement of facts indicates Khalid's primary role was to be involved in finding a place to store the bomb-making ingredients and unloading those ingredients on delivery day -- something he eventually accomplished through a person who actually was a police officer.

A surveillance tape played in court showed Khalid and a co-accused unloading bags marked "ammonium nitrate" off a truck at a Newmarket warehouse on June 2, 2006. About two minutes into the unloading process, the tape shows heavily armed police officers moving in for the bust.

After the two had been arrested, a search of the warehouse uncovered handwritten instructions on what to do with the shipment after it was off the truck, slightly more than $10,000 cash and a computer memory stick that contained an audio mention from one of the ringleaders as well as some documents entitled "For Your Eyes Only/Toronto.doc" which was real estate listings in the GTA.

A number of things were also seized from Khalid's bedroom during a search of his home including a handwritten note listing "wires, circuit, and mercury -- 100 grams" and a map to an electronics store.

But Silverstein said his client wasn't really involved in the planning process that makes up the core of the attack plot.

"A significant amount of what happened was outside my client's knowledge," he told the court before Khalid was formally convicted of the lone count.

The sentencing hearing continues tomorrow.