Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Canadian Couple Plotted To Kill Jewish Children at Synagogue

A Canadian couple convicted of plotting to bomb the British Columbia legislature wanted to infiltrate a synagogue and kill “small Jews” to save the children from going to hell, according to court documents.

Police notes presented in British Columbia’s Supreme Court in Vancouver this week recounted Amanda Korody’s husband, John Nuttall, telling an undercover officer that his wife thought she would be doing Jewish children a favor by sending them to paradise, since she believed “grown-up Jews” go to “eternal hell” when they die, the Victoria Times-Colonist reported Tuesday.

Earlier this year, Nuttall and Korody were found guilty of plotting to detonate homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the British Columbia legislature during crowded Canada Day celebrations two years ago. The couple, self-described Muslim converts, are back in court trying to have the verdict vacated due to police misconduct.

“I asked Nuttall how he thinks he will have access to Jewish kids and he said [he and his wife] were both white and could pass for Jewish,” read the note from an undercover officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, dated March 2013.

“They will be regulars in the synagogue. They will gain the trust of everybody. And once they have everything they will get enough guns and ammo to go ahead with their mission.”

Nuttall conceded that Jewish children were noncombatants but believed they would be raised to hate Arabs and Muslims, wrote the undercover officer. However, Nuttall eventually said that “you never know, they may convert [to Islam] in their adulthood.”

Lawyers for Korody and Nuttall are arguing that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police entrapped the pair through an elaborate, months-long undercover sting operation.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.