The Toronto 18 — Radicalized in the Suburbs

The Toronto 18 — Radicalized in the Suburbs

Author: Dark Poutine / Curiouscast March 9, 2026 Duration: 59:44
Episode 409: In June 2006, police carried out coordinated arrests across southern Ontario and charged 18 young men under Canada’s anti-terrorism laws. The case quickly became known as the Toronto 18. It was described as a homegrown plot, not directed from overseas but organized in suburban communities around Mississauga and Toronto. Most of the accused were in their late teens or early twenties. Many were Canadian citizens or long-time residents. Their backgrounds varied, but research and court records show no pattern of hardened criminal histories or severe mental illness. What drew them together, investigators argued, was a shared sense of grievance over global conflicts and a growing embrace of militant ideology. Sources: Prime Minister comments on terror arrests | Canada.caSeventeen Arrested on Anti-Terrorism Charges | Canada.ca2006 Ontario terrorism plot | WikipediaPublic Safety Minister Stockwell Day Issues Statement on Canada's National Day to Remember Victims of Terror | Canada.caToronto 18: Key events in the case | CBC NewsManitoba Law Journal, vol 44 no 1, 2021 CanLIIDocs 787R. v. N.Y., 2008 CanLII 51935 (ON SC)R. v. Gaya, 2008 CanLII 24539 (ON SC) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Podcast Episodes
Lives On Display: The Dionne Quintuplets [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:16
Episode 425: In May 1934, five identical girls were born in a farmhouse outside Corbeil, Ontario. They were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy anywhere in the world. Within weeks, the Province of Ontario had…
Unnatural Selection — The Alberta Eugenics Act [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:20
Episode 424: Between 1928 and 1972, the Alberta government authorized the forced sterilization of nearly 3,000 Albertans deemed "unfit" to reproduce. They were told they were having their appendix removed. Many were chil…
The Murder of Francis Rattenbury: The Man Who Built B.C. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:03
Episode 423: Francis Mawson Rattenbury designed the BC Parliament Buildings, the Empress Hotel, and the building that now houses the Vancouver Art Gallery, as well as many others. He was the most celebrated architect in…
The Hogg’s Hollow Tunnel Disaster [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:39
Episode 422: On St. Patrick's Day, 1960, five Italian immigrant construction workers — Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Carriglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and brothers Alessandro and Guido Mantella — died beneath the Don River in…
Ripoffs and a Rolex: The Murder of Ronald Joseph Platt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:39
Episode 421: On July 28, 1996, a fisherman hauling nets off the coast of Devon, England pulled up a body. The dead man had no wallet, no identification — nothing but a Rolex watch still ticking on his wrist. When British…
Every Dog Has Its Day : The Case of Valentine Shortis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:48
Episode 420: On the night of March 1st, 1895, in the paymaster's office of the Montreal Cotton Company in Valleyfield, Quebec, a twenty-year-old Irish immigrant named Francis Valentine Cuthbert Shortis shot three men — k…
The 2017 Las Vegas Shooting: Canadian Connections [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:16
Episode 419: On the night of October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on more than 22,000 concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. In eleven minutes, 58 people were killed and hundreds more woun…
Air Canada Flight 797: The Death of Stan Rogers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:22
On June 2nd, 1983, Air Canada Flight 797 departed Dallas, Texas, bound for Montreal, Quebec, with a stop in Toronto. Forty-one passengers and five crew were on board. Shortly before 7 pm Eastern time, a fire broke out in…
Murder Behind Vinyl: The Tragic Death of Lukas Strasser-Hird [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:59
Episode 417: In the early hours of November 23, 2013, 18-year-old Lukas Strasser-Hird was violently beaten behind the Vinyl nightclub in Calgary, in an alley off 10th Avenue Southwest. He was rushed to the hospital, but…
Matthew Baillie Begbie — The Hanging Judge [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:06
Episode 416: Matthew Baillie Begbie (1819–1894) served as the first judge of mainland British Columbia during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, arriving in 1858 as the colony struggled to impose order across a fast-growing an…