Man with al-Qaida ties pleads guilty to threatening transit
Mohamed Abdullah Warsame, a Somali-born Canadian, acknowledged planning attacks on Montreal subway and Passport Canada office.
Mohamed Abdullah Warsame, a Somali-born Canadian with historical ties to al-Qaida, has pleaded guilty in Montreal to threatening to bomb public transit and a government office.
Warsame pleaded guilty to threatening to blow up trains or subways, as well as to calling Passport Canada from detention and threatening to destroy that office. A joint statement of facts filed in Quebec court revealed that Warsame told a social worker at Montreal's Old Brewery homeless shelter that he wanted to kill a million people using bombs.
Warsame previously pleaded guilty in Minnesota in 2009 to providing material support to al-Qaida. According to that plea agreement, he travelled to Afghanistan in 2000 to attend al-Qaida training camps, where he met the organization's founder, Osama bin Laden.
His lawyer, Leonard Waxman, noted that Warsame is homeless and mentally ill. Montreal police initially directed him to mental health services before he was arrested by RCMP at a hospital psychiatric ward in June 2025.
The case returns to court in September.