Toronto

Who knows just how ugly this threatened attack on Toronto and its people could have turned out?

But just five hours before the heinous Quebec mosque slaughter, a racially charged and profane social media threat was promising “bloodshed” Monday at a legendary Toronto landmark and toward the people in it.

“We are going to make every front page in the world,” promised an online poster. “The only thing that will get people’s attention is the lives of innocents.”

But the anonymous person behind the tweets issued a warning to “Toronto f—” or “burgers planning on visiting Toronto” to “please stay away from the CN Tower.”

The person wrote “I am not going to say when but tomorrow much blood will be shed.”

Toronto Police intelligence officers wasted no time and were all over this — even before the killing of six innocent Muslims in prayer and the wounding of five others in Quebec.

This person complained “Canada has been complacent for too long and must wake up to the threat of the sandn—–.”

The sick post added “black countries are for blacks, Asian countries are for Asians but white countries are for all? We can’t allow this to continue. Goodbye, brothers.”

The poster also said “this isn’t going to be some bull—- suicide by cop” and boasted to not be working alone.

Within a short period of time, after gaining a warrant, police arrived at a building in the Wellesley-Parliament Sts. area and moved in on an apartment on an upper floor.

“There were lots of them,” said a neighbour. “Shocking.”

A staff member of the building said police were “so professional” in dealing with the occupants who “we have never had any previous trouble with.”

Police arrested a man and a woman inside the apartment and took them both into custody. The woman was later released and not charged or implicated.

The man, Connor Merzetti, 33, was hit with the Criminal Code offences of “uttering threats” and “hoax regarding terrorist activity.” He appeared in College Park courts for a first appearance Monday and is believed to still be in custody.

In a news release, Toronto Police said they “became aware of alleged terrorist threats identifying a Toronto landmark and people as targets” and they further alleged “someone posted threats on the Internet, the threats were to cause bodily harm or death to civilians and a Toronto landmark and an event were targeted.”

Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash told the Toronto Sun’s Jenny Yuen “we’re particularly concerned with these sorts of situations with copycats, so what I can tell you is we obviously take any such threats seriously and we’re going to err on the side of caution.

“We put a lot of work into investigating this and we believe we have sufficient evidence to charge this person with these offences.”

What an incredible job by Toronto Police. After what the country suffered through in Quebec, it puts into perspective the importance of their heroics.

jwarmington@postmedia.com