Mid-Week mayhem!

                   

Raed Jaser, 35, appears at Old City Hall courts in Toronto, as seen in this artist’s rendition, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (John Mantha / CTV Toronto)

News of an alleged plot to plant pressure-cooker bombs near the British Columbia legislature on Canada Day stunned Victoria residents and people across the country Tuesday.
Here is a recap of some recent terrorism-related investigations involving Canadian residents:
Via Rail terror plot
CTVNews.ca Staff
In April, the RCMP arrested two men in connection with an alleged plot to derail a passenger train on the busy Via Rail route linking Toronto and New York City.
Chiheb Esseghaier, a 30-year-old Montreal resident, and Raed Jaser, a 35-year-old from the Toronto area, face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, participating in a terrorist organization and conspiracy to interfere with transportation facilities.
Esseghaier is also charged with one count of having directed a person to carry out a terrorist activity.
Neither man is a Canadian citizen.
The RCMP alleged the two men received “guidance” from al Qaeda in Iran, but said the plot was not state-sponsored.
Tunisian-born Esseghaier was a PhD student in Quebec who had travelled to Iran within the past two years. He has said that he wants to be judged in court by the Qur’an, not the Criminal Code.
A third man, Ahmed Abassi, was arrested in the U.S. and faces terrorism charges there. Prosecutors allege that Abassi “radicalized” Esseghaier.

Project Samossa
Three Ontario men were arrested in August 2010 and accused of terror-related activities as part of so-called Project Samossa.
Misbahuddin Ahmed and Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh of Ottawa, and Khurram Syed Sher, of London, Ont., were all charged with conspiring to facilitate terrorist activity.
In addition, Alizadeh and Ahmed were charged with making or having explosives and participating in the activities of a terrorist group.
Police said the suspects’ alleged plot reached Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Dubai, but did not release any details.
Sher and Ahmed are out on bail, while Alizadeh remains in custody.
Ahmed worked as an X-ray technician at an Ottawa hospital and Sher was a doctor of pathology. Alizadeh had studied electrical engineering technology at Red River College in Winnipeg.

Hezbollah link
A Quebec woman was arrested in May 2011 at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle parts for an AR-15 rifle in her luggage.
The RCMP allege Mouna Diab illegally exported weapons to the Hezbollah in Lebanon, a group Ottawa considers to be a terrorist organization.
Diab was also charged with committing an offence for a terrorist group.
With files from The Canadian Press
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/a-recent-history-of-alleged-terror-plots-foiled-in-canada-1.1350923#ixzz2XzMubash
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A Florida woman was arrested for battery of an officer after kissing him on the nose against his will, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said.

Peggy Hill, 62, was arrested on Saturday when authorities were called to her house for a disturbance, according to a sheriff’s office arrest report.

When deputies arrived, they spoke to a neighbor who said he had an ongoing dispute with Hill, the report said. He also said she took a piece of fencing from his property.

Hill invited the officers on her property and denied taking the piece of fencing. She said something was laying up against her fence, so she removed it.

Authorities said she was tampering with the neighbor and that is a felony because of the pending case against her for livestock theft, which she allegedly stole from her neighbor.

When officers were speaking to her, she approached one and kissed him on the nose against his will, the report said. He wiped off the saliva and attempted to arrest her, the report said.

Hill was arrested for battery of an officer and when en route to the jail, she fell and hit her head. Officers took her to the hospital and she was cleared, the report said.

After being arrested, Hill told authorities she had about three glasses of wine before they arrived. She also said the thought just popped into her head to kiss the officer on the nose, so she did, the report said.

Hill is still in jail with a $5,000 bond, according to online jail records.

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For the second time in as many days, the same man caused a flight to be diverted after he reportedly tried to exit the planes during flight.

The unidentified man’s journey began Monday in Las Vegas. He was on US Airways flight 390 to Charlotte when officials said the man tried to “exit for a smoke.” Officials said he was shaking the seat in front of him and may have tried to light a cigarette.

That plane was diverted to Albuquerque, and the man was detained by authorities. Albuquerque International Sunport Airport spokesman Dan Jiron said the passenger was interviewed and checked out by paramedics and was not deemed a threat.

On Tuesday morning, he boarded a second plane, American Eagle 3172, from Albuquerque to Chicago.

The flight was diverted to Kansas City and landed just before 11:30 a.m. when the same man tried to exit the aircraft during flight, American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan told NBC Chicago.

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A handful of Liberal seats will be up for grabs in less than a month here in Ontario, and Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives don’t expect to win a single one of them.

That, at least, is the word coming out of Ontario’s Official Opposition in advance of Wednesday’s announcement that five by-elections will be held on Aug. 1. And while lowering expectations is a time-honoured tradition for politicians, Mr. Hudak has particularly good reason to do so.
Of the province’s three major party leaders, Mr. Hudak is the likeliest to be left without a positive spin to put on the Tories’ results in the mid-term contests. And if his party is not prepared for that, it could add to unrest about his leadership heading into the next general campaign.

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Sandwiched between two rail lines in Toronto’s core, great factories once produced the finest Canada could offer the world: Magic baking powder, Brunswick bowling alley flooring and Massey Ferguson farm equipment.

Those factories and many others here have been long abandoned or demolished, but the area is bustling. It is now called Liberty Village and it is packed with high-rise condominiums, largely built over the last five years, with many more still under construction.

The popularity of the Liberty Village downtown condominium development is a highly visible sign that Toronto’s effort to create a livable city through densely populated neighborhoods is a roaring success.

Yet some Canadians see the frenzied building boom that repopulated this part of downtown Toronto and worry that it may end badly.
Historically low interest rates and financially healthy banks eager to lend have spurred Canadians to shop for houses and condos. So builders built. Just over 55,000 new condo units are under construction in the city, many of them along Toronto’s condo alley, which starts at Liberty Village and heads east for about three miles through the downtown core. Median condo prices have risen 25 per cent since 2009. Two-bedroom condos of about 850 to 900 square feet in Liberty Village sell for about $500,000.
For Toronto, this is crazy.
“There is no question that the housing market in Canada is overshooting,” said Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist of CIBC World Markets. “Now the cocktail party conversation in Canada is: ‘Will this lead to a U.S.-style crash?’”
The worriers are not just on the party circuit. Last month, the Bank of Canada said that the growing inventory of unsold condos in Toronto could eventually create “the risk of an abrupt correction in prices and residential construction activity.”
After almost five years of growth, high-rise condo sales were down 6.4 per cent in May, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board. The worry now is that prices will also start to follow a downward path.
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P.S.  The Perspective Research Department and the Naked News staff are hearing rumours that Superman is banging Kaley Cuoco now!
How’s that for a “Big Bang Theory!”