Zak and Michelle

0:00Michelle Shephard:Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back.

0:08Zakaria Amara:So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal.

0:15Michelle Shephard:So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

0:32Zakaria Amara:One day, with the help of science, you might be able to live forever. Forever. Your body will just need a couple tune-ups. Injecting bone marrow in your 40s, your kidney in your 50s, your heart in your 60s, and so on. and then potentially a whole body transplant by the time that you were 90. This week on Explain It To Me, the quest for longevity. Find new episodes Sundays wherever you get your podcasts.

1:03Zakaria Amara:There was this great fear that there was going to be another attack. There was, of course, 9-11, then the anthrax scare, but everyone was worried about the next big one. In 2005, Michelle Shepard was a national security reporter for the Toronto Star. She started hearing from sources that Canadian authorities were keeping an eye on a group of young Muslim men in Toronto. And then I started hearing stories about a northern training camp. And these young boys were up in the woods north of Toronto training for an attack. It all kind of sounded quite far-fetched. And to be honest, I think my editors thought I was just being a bit conspiratorial and there wasn't really a story there.

1:53Zakaria Amara:But I kept saying, you know, something's going on and sort of putting the pieces together. Michelle says she talked to a source with the police to see if they knew anything. They actually laughed. They said, oh, that sounds pretty funny. A bunch of guys running around the woods with guns. I think I would have known about it. And what I found out much later was that call kind of put off alarm bells because at that point there was an investigation going on. I was getting accurate information, and they were very worried that a journalist knew anything about this. In June of 2006, Michelle was hosting a barbecue at her house.

2:34Zakaria Amara:My husband actually works at the Toronto Star, and we used to have an annual barbecue in our backyard for all the interns. We have a small house in Toronto, a small backyard, and it was packed with, gosh, it was probably about 60 of us, editors, photographers, reporters, the interns. But it was about 8 o 'clock, I guess, and my phone rang, and it was somebody, a source, saying it's going down. She heard that police were starting to make arrests. I literally had the newsroom in the backyard. So I caught the eye of the photo editor who was tending the barbecue, and he knew what was going on, and another editor.

3:21Zakaria Amara:And we just dispatched a bunch of reporters, a bunch of photographers, and we went and blanketed the city to try and figure out what was happening. And then I went into the newsroom to pull the story together. In the end, 18 people were arrested under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act for planning to set off bombs in Toronto. They became known as the Toronto 18. The youngest was 15. Police had been investigating them for about two years. They'd been using wiretaps and undercover informants. Did it feel scary? Did it feel like something could happen at any moment? And even though everyone had been worried after 9-11 there would be another attack, it still seems sort of incredible that there were 18 people planning to blow up downtown.

4:14Zakaria Amara:And the plan would have been catastrophic. I mean, it would have totally crumpled our, it would have been our 9-11. And tell me a little bit about who these 18 men were. You know, it's hard. You can't really put them in one category. Every single suspect, you know, had a different backstory. But in very general terms, they were young Muslim boys. Some were, you know, young, were juveniles, and others were older. They, majority, you know, they were kind of middle class, all Canadian. But, you know, quite generally, they were angry with Canada's involvement in Afghanistan. And they were, you know, felt the backlash of Islamophobia in the community.

5:09Zakaria Amara:What was the press coverage like at the time? Was this all over, all day, every day? All over. And I remember the morning that they first came to court. And there were snipers on the roof. There had to be, I think every media outlet in the U.S. was there. It was huge. It was a, I mean, I'm trying to think if we've had a bigger case here in Toronto. And I don't think we have in the time that I've been reporting. One newspaper ran the headline, Thread on the Homefront. Another article read, a Canadian jihad is apparently underway. In court and subsequent days, anybody who walked into the courthouse who wore a hijab or had a long beard had a microphone shoved in their mouth.

6:05Zakaria Amara:The various Muslim communities in Toronto were kind of made to answer for this case. And now looking back at some of the pieces that were written, And they're just so blatantly Islamophobic. There was one, a colleague at another paper wrote something to the effect of, you know, all the suspects had a first name Mohammed, second name Mohammed, last name Mohammed. Much of the coverage focused on two men that were considered the group's leaders. One was Fahim Ahmad. He was 21 years old when he was arrested. He pled guilty to participating in a terrorist group and instructing others to carry out activities for that group.

6:54Zakaria Amara:He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The other was a 20-year-old named Zachariah Amara. The Toronto Star ran a picture of him on the front page and reported that he'd bought three tons of ammonium nitrate to make bombs. He pled guilty to two charges of terrorism. In 2010, he was sentenced to life in prison. Well, let's just start with you introducing yourself.

7:25Michelle Shephard:That's probably the most difficult question. How do you do that with a past like mine? So do you just stick to first name, last name? Do you get it straight into the crime which defines you? My name is Zachariah Amara, and I'm a returning citizen to society after spending nearly 17 years in prison on a life sentence. I'm much more than that, but for now, that's how, I guess, that's the most honest way to introduce myself without hiding.

8:07Zakaria Amara:I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

8:17Zakaria Amara:We'll be right back.

8:47Zakaria Amara:We'll be right back. powerful clean you can feel good about. So go on, pick up a bottle of All Free Clear for your next laundry day. The most memorable gifts aren't found, they're made. Zazzle is a custom marketplace where you pick any product, a mug, a card, a tote, a phone case, and make it personal, a photo, a name, an inside joke, the kind of gift that actually fits the person. That's what 30 million customers have been coming back to Zazzle for over 20 years to find. Right now, save 25 % on your first order at Zazzle.com. That's Zazzle.com. Make it Z-amazing. In 2023, Zachariah Amara decided to send an email to Michelle Shepard.

9:35Zakaria Amara:Why did you want to speak to her?

9:39Michelle Shephard:You know, she was the one who broke our story. and I couldn't talk to every single member of the public, but at least I could reach out to as many people as I could.

9:56Zakaria Amara:Michelle Shepard remembers when she first read Zach's message. And it started something to the effect of, I hope this doesn't alarm you, which is always alarming, right? And he just said, I don't know if you remember me, This is Zachary Amara, and I just served my time and out on parole. And I don't know why I'm reaching out to you. I don't want a story. But I've just been sort of thinking about you and the coverage, and I'm just saying hi, basically. I was surprised you reached out to me. I kind of had assumed that he would want nothing to do with journalists. and would have felt that the coverage of the trial had, you know, really hurt him.

10:47Zakaria Amara:That was just my impression. I was just surprised that he wanted to reach out to me. So I wrote him back and I said, I'd be happy to meet for a coffee if you want. We went to a coffee shop on one of the university campuses. And I was running late. And he got there before me. And then he sent me a text saying, I've got us a spot by the window. I'm just going to go pray BRB, be right back. So I went in, I got a coffee, and he comes running up to me, and he's kind of looking panicked. He's like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. What did you think when you saw a knapsack by a table by the window with a terrorism convict?

11:33Zakaria Amara:And I was like, oh God. And I laughed. I kind of liked that, I mean, dark, dark humor, of course. And I just laughed. I said, well, I'm obviously, you know, the worst national security reporter because the thought didn't even cross my mind. But hi. And anyway, we got our coffees and we sat down and, gosh, I think we chatted for like two hours. I don't know, maybe even longer. You know, I was, of course, skeptical and dubious the first time I met him. I thought, well, is he really? Has he changed? Zakamara's family moved to Canada from Cyprus when he was around 12 years old.

12:12Michelle Shephard:I do have a diary that I kept that I discovered later on. But in it, I talk about coming to Canada, and you could tell I'm excited. I liked it. It was definitely an adjustment.

12:27Zakaria Amara:The first time he saw snow in Canada, it reminded him of Home Alone. Zach struggled at school, but he eventually started making friends.

12:36Michelle Shephard:I ended up finding my identity in my Muslim faith. And after that, I became kind of confident, and I was well-adjusted, I would say.

12:48Zakaria Amara:In high school, he joined the Muslim Student Association, and he became close with two other students, Fahim Ahmad and Saad Khalid. They spent a lot of time together. Sometimes the three of them would write rap songs that they'd post online. Both Fahim and Saad were arrested as part of the Toronto 18. Zach says that things started to change for him after September 11th. He was 16 years old at the time. He remembers he was in chemistry class when he learned that hijackers had flown a plane into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. In October, the United States began bombing the Taliban in Afghanistan.

13:35Michelle Shephard:I still remember President Bush's speech, you know, you're either with us or with the terrorists. When you heavily rely on just one identity, like in the case of the Muslim identity and me specifically, and I look more like the people you're bombing, therefore I must be with them. I was upset like I took it as an attack against my identity and the people that I was more identifying with more and more as you know the aftermath of 9-11 and so I was kind of very upset about it and angry

14:15Zakaria Amara:What were other people around you at the mosque or at home saying about it? I mean were you all on the same page or did you find yourself being more angry about it than others you were around?

14:31Michelle Shephard:There was a general anger, but I think it's because the Muslim community felt the backlash of 9-11, and many people blamed them for it. And so as a minority, they're very afraid. They were on the defensive. But I, as a young man, didn't understand that, and I was upset about him.

14:57Zakaria Amara:The Canadian Islamic Congress reported a spike in hate crimes in Canada after September 11th. Zach says he and his friends started reading and posting on radicalist websites. By 2005, he'd stopped going to the movies and watching TV. He'd gotten married at 18, and he dropped out of college and was working at a gas station. Zach says that he was worried about the war in Afghanistan and how many people were being killed. He says he started to feel that it was up to him to keep Muslims from being hurt in the war.

15:32Michelle Shephard:So the process of radicalization and isolation and just meeting with like-minded people who had the same thoughts took place over years. And you just more and more isolate. As we know, as you grow more extreme or more radicalized, you tend to isolate within the same silo. and kind of want to hear the same beliefs reaffirmed.

15:59Zakaria Amara:Zach and his friend Fahim Ahmad started planning an attack. They recruited friends. And Zach looked for a place outside the city where he and Fahim could hold a training camp. They picked a place about two hours north of Toronto. They met the recruits there in December. Zach and Fahim told them they'd be practicing military maneuvers. They used paintball guns and one real gun for target practice in the woods. They took videos of themselves. Most of them slept in their cars. They went to a local Tim Hortons to use the bathroom. Locals noticed the men at the grocery store. They were usually wearing camouflage.

16:44Zakaria Amara:Neighbors reported hearing gunfire in the woods. But police didn't do anything, because the men were already being watched closely. One of the men in the training camp was working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as an undercover agent.

17:05Zakaria Amara:We'll be right back.

17:16Zakaria Amara:Stitch Fix. Stop shopping, get styled. A plus on the outfit, Miss Turner. You are about to slay parent-teacher conferences. Oh, these? Just the most perfect fitting jeans my stylist sent me. Oh, hello you, who didn't set one foot in a mall and still looks amazing. Just share your size, style, and budget, and your stylist sends personalized looks right to your door. Stitch Fix. Get started today at stitchfix.com. To my stylist, this look is dedicated to you. Thank you. Thank you. Support for Criminal comes from Ritual. When it comes to multivitamins, it's good to know exactly what you're putting in your body.

17:56Zakaria Amara:Ritual is very clear about that. Ritual's essential for women 18-plus multivitamin contains nine key nutrients important for your brain, bones, and red blood cells. You take two capsules daily, and the capsules are made with a delayed release design. I appreciate knowing exactly what's in my vitamins. And on Ritual's website, I learned that the omega-3 I take comes from Canada, vitamin K2 comes from Oslo, Norway, and the iron in my multivitamins is from Utah. Ritual multivitamins are made traceable, which means it's easy to find out where the ingredients come from and why they're included. Ritual's Essential is also third-party tested for heavy metals and clean label project certified.

18:37Zakaria Amara:Instead of striving for perfect health, aim for supporting foundational health. Save 25 % on your first month at ritual.com slash criminal. That's ritual.com slash criminal for 25 % off your first month. In 2006, Zach Amara started planning to make three bombs. He would fill U-Haul trucks with fertilizer and detonators and park them outside the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian intelligence headquarters, and a military base in Ontario. He looked up how to build a fertilizer bomb at the local library, the same kind of bomb that Timothy McVeigh used to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

19:22Zakaria Amara:Was there ever a moment in the planning process where you thought to yourself, what am I doing?

19:30Michelle Shephard:Yeah, definitely. I remember just, you know, parking, I think it was somewhere off the highway, and just breaking down in tears and praying and just not knowing what I was doing. And I've had, like, a number of those situations that happened, but I just, you just kept doubling down. I just kept doubling down and just keep moving forward. The best way that I can describe the way this plot transpired is it was kind of when you get on a treadmill and it just keeps going faster and faster and you can't get off. Again, you know, I am responsible for what happened. And honestly, I hold myself responsible more than anyone else in the case.

20:29Michelle Shephard:And I believe if I wasn't around, probably none of this would have happened at all. And probably nobody would have been arrested. But that's how it happened. It's just, it's an escalation, a doubling down, and then just being locked in a certain mental state where you just can't get off.

20:49Zakaria Amara:Zach started to build a detonator that could be activated using a remote. He figured out how much fertilizer he would need, and then he bought fertilizer from a friend of a friend, who later turned out to be another undercover informant. When the informant made the delivery on June 2, 2006, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police began making arrests.