Police agent Shaher Elsohemy testified that the 34-year-old Mississauga man told him he had sought advice from his father, who operated an Islamic school, about whether "physical action in Canada, an attack on Canadian soil" was permissible under Islamic law.

"His father told him there's nothing wrong with it, in other words it's acceptable," said the Crown's star witness. "And if civilians happen to be there, that is their destiny."

Abdelhaleem's moral conscience was eased after his father, Tariq Abdelhaleem, issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, explained Elsohemy.

Court was told that although Abdelhaleem was opposed to adding metal chips to truck bombs, because of the potential for mass carnage, he admitted it would be "good" if there were some fatalities.

That, he believed, would show authorities that members of the group, now known as the Toronto 18, were a force to be reckoned with.

"Abdelhaleem informed me that Zakaria Amara (the mastermind of the bomb plot) wants to add metal chips to the bomb but that he was in disagreement," said Elsohemy, who easily gained Abdelhaleem's trust because the two had once been close friends.

"But, he said if some got killed it's good so that they know we're not afraid," recalled Elsohemy about a discussion the pair had at a coffee house in late April 2006.

Elsohemy, who was paid $4.1 million for his work as an undercover agent and is currently in the witness protection program, said Abdelhaleem told him that if the intent was to kill civilians there were "more logical" targets.

Rather than packing trucks with fertilizer bombs destined to strike the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Front St. office of Canada's spy agency and a military base near Highway 401, Abdelhaleem suggested striking Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, a football field or poisoning food at a factory, said the witness.

Abdelhaleem, the first adult to stand trial of the 18 individuals arrested in June 2006, is alleged to have used Elsohemy to set up the purchase of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer destined for explosives.

With a degree in agricultural sciences, and an uncle who purportedly owned a large chemical plant, Elsohemy quickly became the guy the plotters turned to to obtain bomb-making chemicals. Elsohemy testified about numerous meetings he had with Abdelhaleem, who referred to himself as the plot's "coordinator" or "planner."

Abdelhaleem, who is expected to testify in his own defence, is charged with participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. He pleaded not guilty to both counts and elected to be tried by a judge alone and not a jury.

Of the 18 people charged, one youth was convicted and four adults have pleaded guilty, including Amara. Seven have had their charges stayed.

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