By Canadian Press

B.C. couple who faced terror charges still pose a threat to the public: Crown

Sep 7, 2016 | 2:15 PM

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia couple found guilty of masterminding a terrorist plot but then freed when a judge ruled they had been entrapped by police are still a danger to the public, a Crown lawyer says.

John Nuttall and Amanda Korody appeared via video from Victoria at a Vancouver provincial court hearing on Wednesday called to consider if they should be restricted under a peace bond while their case is under appeal.

Crown counsel argued throughout the pair’s lengthy criminal trial that Nuttall and Korody embraced violent extremism and repeatedly spoke about killing and maiming members of the public who didn’t share their world view.

Crown lawyer Sharon Steele said the pair continue to pose a threat to the public despite their guilty verdicts being reversed. She said the conditions of the bond have yet to be finalized, but Korody’s lawyer Mark Jette said they will likely resemble the bail terms now in place.

Those conditions stop Nuttall and Korody from visiting the B.C. legislature, the Canadian Forces Base in Esquimalt and any synagogue or Jewish school. They are also forbidden from having weapons and must report regularly to a bail supervisor.

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They were found guilty last year of scheming to blow up the provincial legislature in 2013, but a judge overturned the finding earlier this year, ruling that the RCMP manipulated them into carrying out the bomb plot.

Speaking outside the courthouse about the peace bond application, defence lawyers said they disagreed that the provincial court had the authority to canvas an issue they believed had already been settled during the criminal trial and entrapment proceedings in B.C. Supreme Court.

“The very questions that the peace bond application is meant to address have already been answered by the judge in the trial decision,” Nuttall’s lawyer Marilyn Sandford said, referencing Justice Catherine Bruce’s judgment from June 2015.

Bruce “made findings about why our clients said the things they said and did the things they did, and the answer to all of that is that they were induced to do that by police,” Sandford added.

“Given all of her findings, to have another hearing where we play the same wiretap and hear from the same witnesses about what happened in the Mr. Big (undercover operation), we say that’s legally wrong, that this court is bound by the findings that the other court has made. They don’t get a second kick at it this way.”

Sandford and Jette also took issue with the Crown’s plan to call on their clients’ bail supervisors to testify, raising concerns that the supervisors have become agents of the state after the RCMP directed them to go above and beyond in dealing with Nuttall and Korody’s case files.

“Taking them to the park for a walk and a chat. That just doesn’t happen. Our system is pretty overloaded and bail supervisors are pretty busy people,” Sandford said.

“In this case, the bail supervisor has taken on a very much expanded role where they are making probing inquiries of our clients’ beliefs and thoughts, as directed by police.”

Jette said the norm is for a client to walk into a supervisor’s office, confirm they’re adhering to bail requirements, sign their name and leave.

Both lawyers said Nuttall and Korody are doing well and trying to re-establish their lives on Vancouver Island.

“Considering all they’ve been through, I think they’re doing surprisingly well,” Sandford said.

The peace bond hearings are scheduled to resume Jan. 5.

The defence lawyers denied that their clients hold extremist Islamic views.

— Follow @gwomand on Twitter

Geordon Omand, The Canadian Press