BRAMPTON, Ont. - A man described as the co-ordinator of a terrorist plot to detonate a series of truck bombs in the heart of Canada's financial district was given the maximum sentence Friday, although he will be eligible for parole in about five years.

Shareef Abdelhaleem, 35, stroked his beard and rubbed his eyes as he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 10 years -- the harshest penalty under Canada's anti-terror laws.

"Mr. Abdelhaleem exhibits no genuine remorse or insight into his behaviour," Ontario Superior Court Justice Fletcher Dawson said.

"(He) has so far not accepted responsibility for his dangerous actions,"

Abdelhaleem was convicted last year intending to cause an explosion.

Dressed in a blue shirt and beige pants, he was handed the same sentence as Zakaria Amara, co-leader of the group known as the Toronto 18.

In a rambling statement before he was sentenced that Dawson described as a "lengthy political diatribe," Abdelhaleem admitted he was an extremist but said he did not want to be labelled a terrorist.

Standing and alternately reading from paper he held and looking around the courtroom, Abdelhaleem insisted he was being unfairly treated by the justice system.

He suggested his extreme political views on the Middle East have been backed up by massive protests that ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

He also insisted he was remorseful.

"I am not denying what I did was wrong," he said. "I am sorry."

Dawson also sentenced Abdelhaleem to five years on a second conviction of participating in a terror group.

However, the judge reduced the punishment to one day after giving him credit for the 56 months he has spent in custody.

The former software engineer and 17 others were arrested in the summer of 2006 when police foiled the plot to bomb the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an eastern Ontario military base.

Had the plot been carried out during the morning rush hour, hundreds of people would have been killed, many more injured and several city blocks destroyed, the judge said.

Some group members were involved in a separate plan to storm Parliament, but the scheme was never carried out.

The motive was, in part, to protest Canadian troop deployment to Afghanistan.

Abdelhaleem's period of parole ineligibility starts from the time of his arrest, so he can apply for release in 2016.

Prosecutor Iona Jaffe, who had sought a 30-year term, said Abdelhaleem had received "the right sentence."

Terrorism threatens our way of life, she said, and the message is clear.

"If you're going to be doing this kind of thing on Canadian soil, even planning it, you're going to be facing a life sentence," Jaffe said.

Defence lawyer William Naylor said he expected Abdelhaleem would appeal the sentence.

"Of course I'm disappointed that he got life in prison," said Naylor. "I think he's disappointed."

Abdelhaleem, who at times earned $300,000 a year but blew much of it on others to impress them, was motivated by hopes of getting rich after the attacks wreaked havoc on the stock market, the judge said.

He also had a fantasy of being a hero in the Islamic world.

Abdelhaleem didn't fit the stereotype of an Islamic terrorist -- he drank alcohol, took cocaine, led a party lifestyle and didn't regularly attend mosque, the judge said.

At trial, Abdelhaleem portrayed himself as someone who inserted himself in the plot in a valiant effort to mitigate damage and avoid casualties.

But Dawson said Abdelhaleem made a deliberate choice to be involved in a plot he knew would result in "indiscriminate death."

Abdelhaleem later tried unsuccessfully to argue he was entrapped by his friend Shaher Elsohemy, who was working as a police agent.

He was the last member of the Toronto 18 to be sentenced. Charges were dropped or stayed against seven people while 10 others were convicted.