The couple accused in a plot to bomb the B.C. legislature building is suing police, prosecutors and the federal government, citing the impact of an undercover terror investigation and years of legal proceedings that followed.
John Nuttall and Amanda Korody unknowingly worked with undercover RCMP investigators for months on plans for the 2013 terror attack.
A jury found the couple guilty of terrorism offences, but the proceedings were stayed in B.C. Supreme Court in 2016, with Justice Catherine Bruce concluding the defendants had been entrapped by police. That decision was upheld in the B.C. Court of Appeal.
“Simply put, the world has enough terrorists,” Bruce said in her decision. “We do not need the police to create more out of marginalized people who have neither the capacity nor sufficient motivation to do it themselves.”
A notice of civil claim filed Aug. 29 says the pair suffered serious harm as a result of the investigation, including imprisonment, emotional distress, psychiatric injuries and damages to their reputations.
At the time of the investigation, the couple had recently converted to Islam and lived in Surrey, according to the civil claim. They had previously been homeless and addicted to drugs and were both reliant on methadone leading up to and during the RCMP investigation. The couple’s only source of income was social assistance.
In the summer of 2012, Nuttall’s neighbour called police to report that he had heard Nuttall “speaking loudly on the phone about blowing up Islamic countries.” Police attended and dismissed the claims, but that October, police received another complaint about Nuttall expressing violent beliefs.
The police arranged for a psychiatric assessment, which found that Nuttall did not suffer from mental illness but “may be developmentally delayed.”
But the October complaint made its way to federal intelligence, who decided to further investigate Nuttall, leading to an RCMP surveillance operation that ultimately found Nuttall posed no imminent risk to the public.
Regardless, the couple remained a priority for the national security enforcement team, which launched an undercover operation called “Project Souvenir.”
Undercover agents posed as Islamic extremists and worked with the pair to plan a terrorist attack, eventually deciding on a plan to bomb the 2013 Canada Day celebrations at the B.C. legislature buildings.
Throughout the undercover investigation, police provided the couple with money and food. Court documents reveal that investigators became concerned about entrapment, but the investigation continued, with officers pushing Nuttall to come up with a terrorist plan, despite his ongoing resistance.
The couple was arrested July 1, 2013 after officers drove them to Victoria to plant pressure-cooker devices. They remained in custody until 2016.
The civil case claims that police exploited the duo’s religious beliefs and interfered with their freedom of conscience and religion, in contravention of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The civil claim also cites intentional infliction of mental suffering and says police knew or should have known they were harming the couple.
“I think it’s fair to say this was an unprecedented case in Canadian history,” said Nathan Muirhead, the couple’s lawyer. “This case has important implications for all Canadians and making sure their rights are respected and RCMP follows the law.”
None of the defendants have filed responses to the civil claim.
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