An Ontario Superior Court judge has found a youth guilty of two terrorism-related charges connected to an alleged 2023 plot to attack members of the Jewish community in Ottawa. The verdict was delivered Friday by Justice Kerry McVey.

The youth, whose identity remains protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder through affiliation with a terrorist group and of facilitating terrorist activity by attempting to acquire a prohibited firearm. Justice McVey acquitted the individual on a charge of facilitating terrorist activity by making instructional material and propaganda accessible. The accused had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The trial began in April, shortly after the youth’s co-accused—also a minor and shielded by the same legal protections—was found guilty on four charges. In an unusual legal move, the co-accused admitted to a statement of facts and consented to a finding of guilt, preserving the option to appeal certain pretrial rulings.

According to Justice McVey’s ruling, the convicted youth conspired with his co-accused and another person not charged in the case to carry out an attack intended to kill a large number of people. The judge emphasized that the planned violence targeted members of the Jewish community and sought to intimidate them regarding their security.

Court findings detailed the group’s communications, which included extensive discussions about the scale of the intended attack, the firearms and ammunition required, and the potential use of explosives. “Their shared objective was the mass killing of innocent people,” Justice McVey stated.

The youth was arrested in February 2024. The Crown presented evidence that during the summer of 2023, the accused and his co-accused engaged in regular online communication and exchanged violent extremist content. By August, both expressed interest in extremist material and hostility toward various communities, particularly Jewish people.

Much of the material shared by the convicted youth consisted of propaganda and instructional resources, including videos produced by the Islamic State group and documents relating to firearms, explosives, and methods of killing. The judge noted that these communications escalated over time, culminating in a concrete plan by late October 2023 to carry out a mass casualty event in which the co-accused intended to die.

Justice McVey’s ruling underscores the severity of the conspiracy and its motivation to use violent extremism to instill fear within a specific community. Sentencing details are expected to follow in upcoming court proceedings.