We’ve known for quite some time now that people involved in the arts are the scum of the earth (I used to be an actor — trust me, I know.) This takes it to a new low though.

Shareef Abdelhaleem plotted to make money off a stock market crash that would have followed a terrorist attack in downtown Toronto.

He was jailed for his part in what became known as the Toronto 18 terror plot.

Now he is the basis for the lead character in a new play sure to be controversial for its sympathetic portrayal of a man who was convicted of planning to blow up Bay and Front Sts. with a truck bomb.

[...]

The play portrays Abdelhaleem, who was born in Egypt but has lived in Canada since he was 10, as an affable cat lover, who quotes Seinfeld and got caught up in something, almost unwittingly, without fully realizing the consequences.

“I think he’s a guy who showed bad judgment,” Frid says. “I don’t think he’s a terrorist at all.”

So, starting next week, Canada’s terrorist sympathizers (a.k.a. ‘the Left’) will be able to flock to Toronto to see Homegrown, the story of one man who likely was just misguided. Or, in the words of the playwright, happened to “[show] bad judgment.”

Tickets are available from the SummerWorks Theatre festival for only $10 (or the sacrifice of a small virgin goat to some dude named Muhammad.)

UPDATE: As I expected, the SummerWorks Theatre festival was the recipient of $90,000 in Arts & Culture funding from the government this past year.