Defence questions RCMP undercover agent over note-taking in Ismael Habib trial
'The Boss,' 3rd agent to testify, describes hiring terror suspect for odd jobs while mining him for info
The defence lawyer for Ismael Habib, the Montreal man on trial on terror-related charges, pressed an undercover agent Wednesday about why he seemed to take notes only about Habib's politics and religion — when the agent was not supposed to know what the investigation was about.
Habib was arrested last February in Gatineau after an apparent domestic altercation and charged two weeks later on two counts: attempting to leave Canada to commit terrorist acts and giving false information to obtain a passport.
His trial is underway in Montreal, before Quebec Court Judge Serge Délisle.
Federal Crown prosecutor Lyne Décarie has so far called on three undercover RCMP officers to testify about their special operations in the investigation of 29-year-old Habib. All of the agents' identities are protected by a publication ban.
- Ismael Habib subject of multiple undercover sting operations, Quebec Court hears
- Quebecer Ismael Habib on trial for terrorism-related charge
Agent's notes about politics, religion
Undercover agents have directives for their mission, but they are not supposed to be given details about the investigation they're taking part in.
In cross-examination on the third day of the trial Wednesday, defence lawyer Charles Montpetit reviewed the first agent's earlier testimony in which the agent described driving from Montreal to Bainsville, Ont., and back with Habib.
The agent testified that during that drive, Habib said Muslim women are preferable to other Quebec women and that he married for religious reasons.
The agent also wrote in his notes that Habib said he had a wife overseas and a girlfriend in Gatineau, and when the girlfriend found out about the wife she was apprehensive but eventually understanding.
Montpetit asked the agent why he wrote those snippets of conversation down — information about Habib's politics and religion — when he didn't know what the investigation was supposed to be about.
"I just wrote notes as they appeared in my head," said the agent.
The agent's mission involved delivering fake passports picked up in Montreal to Ontario.
Montpetit asked if the agent might have made mental associations between passports and terrorism, which may have had an impact on what notes he wrote. The agent denied that suggestion, saying he wrote down what stuck out to him.
<a href="https://twitter.com/katemckenna8">@katemckenna8</a> and was sworn in without his name, but as "AI3" or "agent infiltration 3"
—@katemckenna8Testimony from 'the Boss'
A third undercover RCMP officer, known as 'the Boss,' took the witness box late Wednesday afternoon.
He testified that in his first few operations, he was to meet Habib under the pretence of hiring him for odd jobs, while mining him for information.
In an earlier undercover operation, the court heard, Habib had told an agent he was having problems with police.
In a series of meetings in December 2015, the Boss was tasked with finding out what those problems were.
In one meeting, Habib told the Boss he had been followed by RCMP officers for three years.
The Boss also testified that Habib asked him whether he knew someone who could steal his partner's car so he could get the insurance money.
The court heard that Habib was hired for for two jobs in December 2015: first, to deliver a package, then to help evict a family from an apartment. Habib completed both tasks, and the Boss paid him $500.
The Boss's testimony is expected to continue on Thursday morning.
