62-year-old Ahmed Eididi and his 26-year-old son Mostafa face nine charges that include conspiracy to commit murder, participation in a terrorist group, and possession of weapons.
Police seized an axe and a machete and say the two suspects were in the advanced stages of planning a violent attack, the exact nature of which is under a publication ban.
But court documents allege they were conspiring to commit murder for the benefit or at the direction of the Islamic State.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent James Parr says the fast-moving investigation only began in July and police had to move quickly to make the arrests.
"We’re pretty confident how close they were to moving from simply having those tools and then moving to actioning that threat," said Parr. "And so I couldn’t tell you, six hours, ten hours, twelve hours. But once again, what I’ll say is, because of the swift nature of all of law enforcement, our partner agencies on this, we’re able to halt that threat. But it was close."
Both men are Canadian citizens and residents of Toronto. Neither was known to police. Parr would not say what led police to begin their investigation.
Police also say there were allegations that the father Ahmad Eididi committed an assault for the benefit of the terror group I-SIS in 2015, somewhere outside Canada.
