Project Thread

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Project Thread was a Canadian police operation that resulted in the arrest of 24 immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area in 2003 amidst incorrect allegations they formed a threat to national security, and maintained "suspected ties to al-Qaeda".^{[1][2][additional citation(s) needed]} It was later determined that police had based their operation on "flimsy evidence and stereotypes".^{[3][additional citation(s) needed]}

After investigating an unregistered diploma mill, police had seized a copy of the names of the 400 students who had attended the school and arrested 24 of them, allegedly gathering the Muslim names off the list and finding dubious connections between them to report as a disrupted terrorist plot.^[4] Among the accusations, authorities alleged that the "al-Qaeda sleeper cell" had experimented with explosives, that one had taken flight training and others had been seen loitering around the Pickering power plant, and may have been targeting the CN Tower in Toronto.^[1][4] After criticism that the Muslim community in Canada had ignored the plight of the falsely accused men,^{[4][additional citation(s) needed]} 18 different men from the Greater Toronto Area were arrested three years later by Canadian authorities and charged with almost identical offences.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Eventually the government backed away from its initial alarms of terrorism, and re-labeled the case a simple charge of "immigration fraud".^[4] When they were eventually deported from the country, despite the admission they "faced the possibility of persecution",^[10] the men found themselves harassed and threatened by a country that now believed they were terrorists.^{[4][additional citation(s) needed]}

The men claimed that their lawyers and friends had been threatened and harassed by Canadian authorities.^[11] Critics claimed the arrests had been "trying to placate US security officials".^[12]