May 2010 Attack on Ottawa Bank: Arson or terrorism?

[The Bread Guy]

Next step: Sentencing....

An Ottawa judge will decide this morning how long an Ottawa fire-bomber should stay in prison.

Roger Clement's lawyer says he should only serve three years for the May 18 attack on an Ottawa RBC branch.

Lawrence Greenspon says Clement's involvement in the attack was motivated by honest beliefs but he's not likely to reoffend.

But the Crown says his actions set an example for others to follow and a stiffer sentence is needed to send a message.

The Crown is asking for a six-year term ....

 

[larry Strong]

He got 3 years.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101207/bank-fire-bomber-sentence-101207/

 

[George Wallace]

I wonder?

This needs to be posted in it's entirety here, in addition to the Sandbox thread were comments are not encouraged,.....this deserves comment.

Terrorism rulings an early Christmas present from our justice system
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD Saturday's Globe and Mail Friday, Dec. 17, 2010
Article Link

As someone smarter than me remarked upon reading the slew of newly released terrorism judgments from the Ontario Court of Appeal, this young country just did a whole lot of growing up.

..............

Will the same judgement be made here as well.  Although, not 'religiously' motivated, it was still an actual act of 'domestic terrorism'.  Should this sentence not also be revisited?

 

[The Bread Guy]

Reviving necrothread with results of second trial.....

An antiwar activist who buried thousands of rounds of ammunition in a wooded area outside Ottawa has been placed on 12 months probation and banned from possessing weapons for five years. 

Claude Haridge was under police surveillance on May 27, 2010, when he drove a pickup truck to a forest off in Tay Valley Township and disappeared into the rows of red pine trees for about 50 minutes. 

After he emerged, police with a sniffer dog entered the forest and located three areas about 30 metres from the road where the pine needles were spread thin and the ground appeared to be recently disturbed. 

The next day, Ontario Provincial Police identification officers dug up a metal box and three wooden crates containing more than 1,600 rounds of 7.62-millimetre ammunition manufactured for automatic and semi-automatic military rifles. 

A green garbage bag containing 15 cans of black rifle powder was also discovered. 

Haridge, 51, had been watched by police for more than a week following the firebombing of a Royal Bank branch in Ottawa. An anarchist group opposed to the bank's sponsorship of the Olympic Games and the homelessness allegedly caused in Vancouver later claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Haridge, who spent eight days in jail, was never charged in connection with the bank fire. Another man, Roger Clement, was sentenced to four years in prison ....

Postmedia News, 24 Oct 11

 

[ModlrMike]

I'm sure probation is going to cure him of his activist sympathies.

 

[The Bread Guy]

I'm sure probation is going to cure him of his activist sympathies.

Still, curbing some of the activities would be a good start.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I do like the irony of an anti-war activist playing with ammunition and black powder.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

I do like the irony of an anti-war activist playing with ammunition and black powder.

He's a guy, he likes things that go "boom."

 

[The Bread Guy]

Bump with an update on one of the folks involved:

The man who firebombed an Ottawa bank in 2010 in the name of First Nations rights was denied parole a few months after CSIS met with him prison, APTN National News has learned.

According to a friend of the former federal civil servant, CSIS agents sat down with Roger Clement in September 2011 and told him they still considered him to be a domestic terrorism threat.

Clement was later denied parole after a hearing on Mar. 28, 2012.

At that hearing Clement was asked to name the other people involved in the May 18, 2010 firebombing of the Royal Bank branch on Bank St. in the city’s trendy Glebe neighbourhood.

Since his arrest Clement has refused to give up who helped him.

Police believe there are at least two other people involved but he’s the only person who has been convicted of the crime. Police arrested Claude Haridge and Mathew Morgan-Brown along with Clement but charges against them were dropped.

Police called the bombing domestic terrorism.

Clement was sentenced to four years in prison but was credited for five months time served.

“You have not disclosed the identity of your accomplices to the police and told the board today that to do so would violate your principles,” the parole board said in its decision obtained by APTN National News.

The board said he has skewed judgment.

Despite his unwavering belief to not identify his accomplices the parole found Clement to be an otherwise model inmate with a great chance to do well outside prison. A community assessment team also recommended him for day parole.

Clement is serving his sentence at a Kingston, Ont. prison and tests showed he was at a low risk to reoffend.

“Your reintegration potential and motivation are currently assessed as high,” the board stated.

Clement spoke about his accomplices in his hearing and described them as “like-minded people who wanted to draw attention to an issue about which they feel passionate.” ....

APTN, 28 Nov 12

 

[busconductor]

Anarchists, terribly helpless for having been completely irrational. Sadly, communists know their agenda of no-government and their presumption "man in by nature neither good nor evil" so that they have to leave each to himself" but still coddle them. They do not see themselves as thieves, vandals, robbers, murderers when an anarchist government is set up but the situation they were in at Ottawa belies these concepts and theories. Just one way of saying them.