BATH, Ont. - A ringleader of the so-called Toronto 18 who plotted to storm Parliament and behead politicians has been denied parole.
A two-member panel of the Parole Board of Canada ruled Wednesday that Fahim Ahmad didn't have a "viable" plan for how he would reintegrate into society if he were released from the maximum-security Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont.
The panel expressed concerns over how Ahmad, 30, would handle exposure to the Internet, which he admitted strongly contributed to his extremism in the past.
Ahmad pleaded guilty in the middle of his 2010 trial to participating in a terrorist group, importing firearms and instructing his co-accused to carry out an activity for a terrorist group.
He was sentenced to 16 years in prison but received a credit of 8 1/2 years for the more than four years he spent in custody awaiting trial.
The Toronto 18 were rounded up in the summer of 2006 in an anti-terrorist that made headlines around the world.
In his hearing Wednesday, Ahmad told the board he had abandoned the beliefs that led him to "violent extremism."
"I think based on everything I've lost and having seen things for what they really are in a pretty painful way, I can't see myself going in any direction like that," he said.
In handing down his sentence four years ago, the judge who oversaw the trial said he believed Ahmad had a chance at rehabilitation.
Ahmad wrote a letter to the court, claiming to have grown respectful of the beliefs of others during his time at Toronto's Don Jail.
His wife and father-in-law also submitted letters describing him as having a more moderate and tolerant stance.
The group's other ringleader, Zakaria Amara, was sentenced in 2010 to life in prison with no chance of parole until 2016.
He and Ahmad had a falling out and Amara formed a separate group in 2006, which managed to get further along in its plans to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, CSIS offices in Toronto and an eastern Ontario military base.
Of the 18 people charged, seven had their charges dropped or stayed, four were found guilty and seven pleaded guilty.
