Canadian Terror Plot Foiled! Plot to Derail Train Uncovered! - 4/22/13

4/22/13 - The RCMP have arrested two people in connection with a homegrown terror plot to derail a New York-to-Toronto passenger train on the Canadian side of the border, CTV News has learned. The suspects, one in Montreal and one in Toronto, were arrested Monday morning and "will face criminal charges," reported CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife.

The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation conducted by the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which "had been going on for a considerable amount of time," Fife said.
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RCMP arrest 2 in connection with alleged terror plot

The RCMP have arrested two people who they say were plotting a terrorist attack in Canada, CTV News has learned.

"I am told that the two people who have been arrested, they are linked somehow to al Qaeda," Fife reported Monday afternoon.

Fife said it remains unclear how the two are connected to the international terror organization.

The two people arrested Monday are not linked with two men from London, Ont., who died in an alQaeda-linked siege on a gas plant in Algeria last January. They are also not linked to the suspects in last week's deadly Boston Marathon bombing.

The public was "never at risk," security sources told Fife, because RCMP and CSIS were closely monitoring the suspects.

The suspects are described as being older, so "it does not appear to be a case of radicalization of youth," Fife said.

Fife said police had planned to make the arrests three weeks ago, but for unknown reasons they picked up the suspects on Monday.

The RCMP are expected to provide more information at a Toronto news conference scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.

The arrests come as MPs debate an anti-terrorism bill that has been in the works for months but has taken on greater significance in the wake of the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon last week.

Bill S-7, the Combating Terrorism Act, includes provisions that make it an offence to leave the country to participate in acts of terror. It also grants police the powers to pre-emptively arrest someone and hold them for three days without charge, and allows for imprisonment for up to 12 months for refusing to testify before a judge in an investigative hearing.