Crown drops bid for terrorism peace bonds on couple entrapped in B.C. Legislature plot

The Crown has abandoned its application for a peace bond that placed conditions on the B.C. couple who were entrapped by RCMP during a high-profile terrorism investigation.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada confirmed Wednesday that peace bond applications for John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were withdrawn on Dec. 20 on behalf of the RCMP.

The reversal means Nuttall and Korody will no longer have to obey conditions such as having to stay away from the Victoria legislative buildings, Canadian Forces Base in Esquimalt and any synagogue or Jewish school.

Nuttall and Korody were convicted in 2015 of terrorism-related offences for planting explosive devices on the grounds of the legislature in Victoria. But those proceedings were stayed the next year after a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled the police investigation an abuse of process.

That decision was upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal last month, and the Crown withdrew its peace bond applications the next day.

Prosecutors first applied for terrorism peace bonds on the couple after proceedings were stayed in 2016, but a provincial court judge held off on hearing those arguments until the ruling from the appeal court.

This specific type of peace bond can be issued when there are reasonable fears that a person may commit a terrorism offence, and may include a curfew, electronic monitoring or surrendering of passports.

Nuttall, 44, and Korody, 35, had been out on bail while the peace bond applications were still active.

The pair had been accused of plotting to plant pressure cooker bombs on the legislature grounds with the goal of murdering tourists on Canada Day 2013.

The courts have ruled that RCMP did not have reasonable suspicion to launch an investigation into the couple, and that officers essentially directed them on how to commit the crime, because they weren't capable of figuring it out on their own.