OTTAWA -- A lawyer for accused terrorist Khurram Syed Sher pressed a police detective Wednesday on the reliability of a transcript of a key meeting between Sher and two alleged co-conspirators.
In Ontario Superior Court, defence lawyer Michael Edelson peppered Det. Mireille Clement with questions about how she prepared the transcription from secret audio surveillance of a discussion at an Ottawa home.
During the July 20, 2010, meeting, Sher seems to express a desire to arrange overseas tactical training through a Pakistani man who claimed to be with the Taliban.
Clement was part of an Integrated National Security Enforcement Team that conducted extensive surveillance of the purported plotters.
The Crown says the homegrown group was dedicated to supporting violent jihad by whatever means possible.
Federal lawyer Jason Wakely said during opening arguments this week that the three men agreed to raise money, send cash abroad, take paramilitary training, make and use explosives, and scout targets in Canada.
Sher, 31, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring to facilitate terrorism.
After studying in Montreal, he worked as an anatomical pathologist at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital in St. Thomas, Ont., south of London.
The RCMP was informed of the case in September 2009 through a formal disclosure letter from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
A publication ban on certain aspects of the file limits what can be reported during the trial.
Wakely has painted a broad picture of the case against Sher, citing evidence gathered about the alleged conspiracy through wiretaps of phone calls, covertly installed listening devices and intercepted emails.
The Crown played six segments of sometimes sketchy audio culled from electronic surveillance of the July 2010 meeting accompanied by a scrolling transcription that Clement -- seconded to the RCMP from the Ottawa police -- finalized after repeated, careful listening.
At one point the three men on the recording discuss the best means of choosing a group leader, suggesting they pick a name from a hat or even spin a bottle.
The material was among 139 intercepts deemed particularly relevant to the investigation, resulting in transcription and translation of discussions in English, French, Arabic, Urdu and Kurdish languages.
Clement said that while preparing the transcripts could be time-consuming, she was confident in the accuracy of the final versions of those for the July 2010 meeting.
Edelson told the court it was effectively relying on Clement's opinion of what the suspects were saying on the audio recording.
"The transcripts will play a significant role in this case," Edelson said. "This is the heart of the Crown's case against my client."
Clement described how she would underline or circle words on draft transcripts done by others when she doubted their accuracy. Those marked-up drafts were later shredded, she added.
Edelson asked Clement what standard of certainty she applied to a final review of the July 20, 2010, meeting transcripts that she carried out in January of this year.
"If I did not hear it, I did not write it," she said. "I went with what I heard."
