Canadian intelligence officials confirmed on Thursday that authorities cracked a small suspected terrorist cell in Toronto, including an Algerian man they allege was an explosives expert trained by al-Qaeda.
Four Algerian men who had applied for refugee status in Canada were alleged members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an Islamic group with ties to al-Qaeda, which is banned in Canada and Algeria.
Barbara Campion, a spokeswoman for Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said the cell was dismantled by CSIS counterterrorism and Canada Border Services Agency agents, working with police.
"We have said publicly that there are a number of terrorist groups that are active on Canadian soil," Campion said, adding that she could not reveal the men's names, nor details of their activities.
details
Some details were divulged, however, during a closed-door meeting in Toronto on Monday with CSIS, law enforcement officials and representatives of Ontario's critical infrastructure industries, such as telecommunications, electricity and transportation.
A National Post journalist was the only reporter allowed to attend the workshop and Campion confirmed his story in the Post in Thursday editions.
Three of the men were deported this summer to US border crossings, because they had entered Canada from the US. The key figure left Canada voluntarily in March 2004 after he was confronted by investigators, the National Post said.
The Safe Third Country Agreement between Ottawa and Washington stipulates that asylum seekers must apply for refuge in the North American country where they first landed.
"American authorities were aware of their arrival and they were dealt with appropriately upon their arrival," Campion said. She didn't know whether the men were being detained in the US.
bracing
Canada -- which has skirted a major terrorist attack since the Air India bombings of 1985 -- has been bracing for an attack on its soil since 9/11. Osama bin Laden has named Canada as one of five so-called Christian nations targeted for acts of terror, as a close ally of the US and a pillar of Western society.
David Harris, a former CSIS chief of strategic planning, believes there are more than 50 terrorist groups in Canada, due to the country's policy toward foreigners to work in the massive North American nation with only 33 million people.
"It may be a shock, but it's not surprising," Harris said of the alleged terror cell in Toronto. "It's largely self-inflicted and that's the great tragedy of this whole situation."
A senior CSIS counterterrorism official, Larry Brooks, told the workshop the ringleader of the Toronto cell was a former al-Qaeda training camp instructor who studied bomb making at bin Laden's training camps in eastern Afghanistan, according to the Post.
He reportedly entered Canada on Aug. 8, 1998, using a forged Saudi passport and made a refugee claim that was eventually turned down.
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