Mac student gets 12 years for terror

Saad Gaya, one of the members of the so-called Toronto 18, was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison, minus 7½ years credit for pre-trial custody.

Gaya, 22, pleaded guilty in September to belonging to a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. He was among 18 men and youths rounded up in 2006 and charged in a plot to wreak havoc and bomb several targets.

The judge called Gaya a "helper" in the plot.

"While the offender did not know how big the bombs were going to be … he was wilfully blind as to the likelihood that there would be death or serious bodily harm," said Ontario Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno.