John Nuttall and Amanda Korody are shown in a still image taken from RCMP undercover video. A B.C. man on trial for plotting to bomb the province's legislature told his wife they should call themselves "al-Qaida Canada."
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP
February 19, 2015 - 5:00 AM
VANCOUVER - A British Columbia man on trial for plotting to bomb the province's legislature told his wife they should call themselves "al-Qaida Canada."
John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were targeted by an undercover RCMP investigation before their arrest in July 2013. Their trial is now watching videos recorded in the weeks leading up to an alleged Canada Day plot.
In a video played for the jury on Wednesday, Nuttall and Korody are alone together in a hotel room in Delta, south of Vancouver, where they watch CNN and occasionally discuss their plan.
"We're going to be looking on the news and seeing the aftermath," Nuttall says.
"This is going to rock the world. The whole world is going to hear about this, you know that right?"
The video, recorded on June 26, 2013, marks the first time the jury has seen the couple alone together. Previous videos have featured Nuttall and Korody interacting with an undercover RCMP officer, who they believe is an Arab businessman discussing their plan.
Earlier in the day, the officer drove the couple to several locations in the Vancouver area, where they bought supplies such as pressure cookers. They relocated to a hotel to put together the bombs — a process they expected to start the following day.
"We are now proclaiming we are al-Qaida," Nuttall said.
"We're AQ Canada, al-Qaida Canada, that's who we are. ... We're sleepers who've been woken, that's what we are."
The Crown's theory is that Nuttall and Korody, who were recent converts to Islam, were self-radicalized and were not part of a larger terrorist group.
The Crown says the couple planned the attack to avenge what they saw as the mistreatment of Muslims abroad, and the videos have featured several instances in which Nuttall complained about Canadian military involvement in Arab countries.
Nuttall and Korody have both pleaded not guilty.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015