May 2010 Attack on Ottawa Bank: Arson or terrorism?

[krustyrl]

I consider it Arson/Vandalism. I hope they are not connected to one of the groups I am familiar with in Ottawa.

And you would be making this "consideration" in which capacity.? 

 

[riggermade]

Considering they did it during a part of the night where is there no other people around inside or out, it is safe to say their intention is not to harm anyone. The glebe around 3am is pretty deserted with only the occasional car going by.

And how do you know what their intention was?  There still could have been alot of people hurt.  If you are going to comment at least try and say something intelligent

 

[The Bread Guy]

- edited to add CBC.ca story -

It's been about forty years since the "Anarchist Cookbook" came out. I never read it, but I think there were instructions for booby traps.

Gee, shame there's so many mistakes in that book - or so I hear.....

Meanwhile, police are picking up the electronic crumbs on the trail - this from CBC.ca:

Ottawa police are "extremely confident" they will make arrests in the recent firebombing of a Royal Bank branch, says Chief Vern White.

"When a community is terrorized by activities of a group based in ideology, that's terrorism and that's what I believed happened here - this is domestic terrorism," White told CBC News on Thursday. "And we'll treat it as such."

He added that police have strong leads already, partly because the purported arsonists posted a video of the incident online.

"We do have strong leads...I'm extremely confident that we're on the right path and that we will make arrests," White said, noting he doesn't say that very often ....

 

[SeanNewman]

Riggermade,

Mellian probably said that for the same reason a lot of other people have:  Because they did not do it in the middle of the day when there were people there.

Have we interviewed the people involved to get their motive?  Of course not.  Could their actions have hurt someone if they fire had spread?  Of course.

However, the fact that they did it at 0330 instead of 1200 hrs speaks volumes to their intent.

 

[mariomike]

However, the fact that they did it at 0330 instead of 1200 hrs speaks volumes to their intent.

I think it shows their intent was not to be seen by using cover of darkness.

 

[Scott]

I think it shows their intent was not to be seen by using cover of darkness.

This isn't directed at you mariomike, because you obviously got it...

D'uh!

 

[ModlrMike]

The timing of the act is completely irrelevant. Their intent was: through violence, to force the Government(s) to accede to their wishes and to advance their agenda.

Terrorism plain and simple

 

[mellian]

With no specific definition, can call nearly all crimes terrorism. It is harming or risking to harm people, and causing fear? Terrorism! Flipping a car over and breaking windows because the Habs won/lose? Terrorism! Drinking and driving? Terrorism! Not looking forward to the day anti-terrorism act can be applied to anything.

Yes, their intent has not been fully investigated yet mainly because they do not have them, yes the fire could have spread to other nearby buildings and remotely harm people that may or may not still be in those buildings, and yes what they did is outright stupid and even more so posting it anywhere online.

Yes there is the cover of the night factor, but why that particular RBC? What about the one downtown, or any other in Ottawa? Close to downtown in Ottawa, yet not a RBC that is part of a high rise or other buildings. The one they hit is isolated from the nearby buildings and also relatively newer contruct. The purpose is to get some kind of message across, via some stupid theatric manner, and post it on Ottawa Independent Media Center? Heck, watching the video and other evidence that can be gleamed online, there is no indication that they are even anarchists.

Sorry, but to me that tells me they are just some dumb asses who thought it was good idea to do this because of the silly reasoning that they would be ignored otherwise, not out to cause property damage for the sake of property damage or harm anyone.

Do I condone this? Hell no! My consideration is someone that was born and raise in Ottawa, and familiar with the activism that goes on there and some elsewhere. Worse, they provided an excuse to apply terrorism charges on other dumb ass crimes and label even more activist groups as potential terrorists.  :

 

[Fishbone Jones]

With no specific definition, can call nearly all crimes terrorism. It is harming or risking to harm people, and causing fear? Terrorism! Flipping a car over and breaking windows because the Habs won/lose? Terrorism! Drinking and driving? Terrorism! Not looking forward to the day anti-terrorism act can be applied to anything.

Yes, their intent has not been fully investigated yet mainly because they do not have them, yes the fire could have spread to other nearby buildings and remotely harm people that may or may not still be in those buildings, and yes what they did is outright stupid and even more so posting it anywhere online.

Yes there is the cover of the night factor, but why that particular RBC? What about the one downtown, or any other in Ottawa? Close to downtown in Ottawa, yet not a RBC that is part of a high rise or other buildings. The one they hit is isolated from the nearby buildings and also relatively newer contruct. The purpose is to get some kind of message across, via some stupid theatric manner, and post it on Ottawa Independent Media Center? Heck, watching the video and other evidence that can be gleamed online, there is no indication that they are even anarchists.

Sorry, but to me that tells me they are just some dumb asses who thought it was good idea to do this because of the silly reasoning that they would be ignored otherwise, not out to cause property damage for the sake of property damage or harm anyone.

Do I condone this? Hell no! My consideration is someone that was born and raise in Ottawa, and familiar with the activism that goes on there and some elsewhere. Worse, they provided an excuse to apply terrorism charges on other dumb ass crimes and label even more activist groups as potential terrorists.  :

They are probably glad you are not their lawyer. You have no grasp or understanding of the offences, or severeity thereof, that they have commited. You are the docile, misunderstood, vocal esponante of their twisted views. You don't even know that you are being used and manipulated by a subversive society that sees rioting, raping and destruction of peace, as opposed to authority and good government (the intent of the majority) as their norm.

You made your views known here when you joined. You are one of those closet anarchists that exist on the internet. Tough talk from someone no one gets to meet.

Know what? You're one of those feeble, swanky, I'll stand in the back with the sign someone brought, type of people. You don't have the balls (this has nothing to do with your transgender issue) to say "This is my conviction, and I'm willing to go to jail for it" Because you don't.

We welcome both sides of the story here, and love to debate a good issue. You don't have it. Don't waste our time. You're little, "I'm an anarchist, but want to live at home and pick my issues" crap is just that, CRAP.

You are an anarchist, and the enemy of our state. Or you want to be a soldier, and defend our state.

You have a choice to make before you post your next response.

 

[XMP]

I think the point may be getting buried here.  The question is "Arson or Terrorism?" How about "Arson AND Terrorism."  The main thing is that when the miserable #$%@$ers get caught, charged and convicted, they spend a significant number of years as guests at Her Majesty's request and expense, contemplating their various and sundry sins, while entertaining Bubba and his decidedly un-anarchistic cellmates. 

 

[krustyrl]

Chaaa---ching... RG.!  Thanks for a realistic input.!             

 

[The Bread Guy]

The fact that these people took a practice used by jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan and other locations, of video taping their act, tells us that they are some really sick puppies.

Such groups have been photographing and videotaping a variety of actions - anti-logging blockades, anti-sealing actions, etc. - to share with the world for some time now.  In this case, the folks have taken the "propaganda of the deed" one step further and shared with the world a pretty serious deed.

Journeyman:  thanks for the further reference - much appreciated!

 

[Journeyman]

.......there is no indication that they are even anarchists.

Too funny.

A group that abhors all systems of order is now demanding ID cards from its true members...lest pseudo-anarchists sully anarchy's fair name!

Thank you; you've made my day. 

 

[mellian]

Too funny.

A group that abhors all systems of order is now demanding ID cards from its true members...lest pseudo-anarchists sully anarchy's fair name!

Thank you; you've made my day. 

Not all anarchists go around firebombing banks or throwing rocks at police, and not all those that do are anarchists.

 

[krustyrl]

Either way you spin this, it is wilful destruction. Luckily personal loss was minimal but this has malicious intent outside of normal thought processes.  Carried out by whomever, call it arson or a form of terrorism, bottom line is it is happenning on our own doorstep.  Track down the perps and deal with them PROPERLY .

I don't choose to split hairs in the definition whether it be a random case of violence, display of anarchacy or an act of terrorism I just don't like it happening here, and mabe the justice systems should make examples of those who destroy property not their own.
And if it was or did have a fundamentalist terrorist connections... may the hammer fall.

My .02

 

[The Bread Guy]

A group that abhors all systems of order is now demanding ID cards from its true members...lest pseudo-anarchists sully anarchy's fair name!

Hey, it gets better - who REALLY speaks for anarchists, anyway?  Here's what a group claiming responsibility for the Ottawa RBC firebombing had to say:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/92495/post-935487.html#msg935487

Royal Bank Canada was a major sponsor of the recently concluded 2010 Olympics on stolen indigenous land. This land was never legally ceded to colonial British Columbia. This hasn’t stopped the government from assuming full ownership of the land and its resources for the benefit of its corporate masters and to the detriment of aboriginal peoples, workers and the poor of the province. The 2010 Winter Olympics increased the homelessness crisis in Vancouver, especially the Downtown Eastside, Kanada’s poorest urban area. Since the Olympics bid, homelessness in Vancouver has nearly tripled while condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1. The further criminalization and displacement of those living in extreme poverty continues apace .... On June 25-27 2010, the G8/G20 ‘leaders’ and bankers are meeting in Huntsville and Toronto to make decisions that will further their policies of exploitation of people and the environment. We will be there.

We pass the torch to all those who would resist the trampling of native rights, of the rights of us all, and resist the ongoing destruction of our planet. We say: The Fire This Time.

Now, here's what's been posted to "a multi-lingual news service by, for, and about anarchists" (PDF attached in case link doesn't work) - highlights mine:

Canada, Ontario, Anarchist Common Cause Statement On RBC Arson: Anarchists scapegoats for RBC arson
Date Fri, 21 May 2010 07:51:52 +0300

Despite widespread claims by the media, there is no indication that the recent "firebombing" of an RBC bank branch in Ottawa was carried out by anarchists. Nowhere in the statement or video that was published online was it claimed that those responsible were anarchists. ---- For the media to claim that this is the work of anarchists without any evidence is the worst sort of red-baiting and gets a F grade in basic journalism. We have no idea what the politics of those who did this are.  We also can’t rule out the possibility that this act was carried out by agent-provocators. ---- "This act should also be put in the context of the significant violence that is perpetrated on a daily basis by the state capitalist system such as the violence of war, poverty, colonialism and environmental destruction.

While we seek to build resistance based on mass movements of working and oppressed peoples, we understand why people are angry at the banks”, says Common Cause Ottawa member Kyle James.

Anarchism is not about violence and chaos. Anarchism is about creating a highly organized and democratic society, free of hierarchy and exploitation.

As anarchists, we support the building of revolutionary, democratic, mass movements that will challenge capitalism directly through labour and community organizing and mass direct action such as strikes, picket lines and occupations.

We believe in the power of millions of working-class people standing together against the bankers, bosses, and their state. Instead of isolated acts of property destruction, we need unlimited general strikes of all workers right across Canada and internationally to defeat the attacks on the working class by the capitalists.

Workers, including bank workers, have nothing to fear from anarchists. Together the working class has the power to shut this entire system down and work for our own needs instead of the profits of the bosses.
-----------------------
Common Cause is an Ontario anarchist organization with branches in Ottawa, London, Toronto and Hamilton.

For more information please contact:
Common Cause
http://linchpin.ca
commoncauseontario@gmail.com

Meanwhile, the authorities are getting closer - this from the National Post - highlights mine - shared in accordance with the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright  Act:

Police have identified suspects in Tuesday's firebombing of a Royal Bank as Ottawa residents linked to an anarchist group, FFFC-Ottawa.

The firebombing, which was filmed and posted online, was an unsophisticated attack, said detectives who have collected trace evidence from the burned-out building at Bank Street and First Avenue.

Investigators have obtained security video from storefronts along the streets, including high-definition images.

The suspects, of which there are believed to be at least four, said in the video that they firebombed the building because the Royal Bank was a sponsor of the Vancouver Olympics. They made their getaway in an SUV.

The suspects are linked to an online independent media site and an anti-establishment network that organizes protests against G8 and G20 summits, unfair trade and government cuts to welfare.

Police said some of the network's meetings are held at a coffee and juice shop in Ottawa's Chinatown.

Yesterday, employees and patrons of the coffee shop spoke openly about the firebombing, and were quick to condemn it. They said the coffee shop, once a co-op, used to attract a small group of self-proclaimed anarchists who often spoke of taking action against the establishment, but their talk was dismissed as just that.

The group severed their ties to the coffee shop a few months ago after strained relations with staff and other patrons.

Investigators said they are confident that evidence will yield arrests. They have enlisted help from the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police.

Since 2007, RBC branches across Canada have been targeted in dozens of attacks by anarchists and other extremists. Until now, the actions have been limited to vandalism.

Several anarchist websites are threatening confrontations at next month's G8 summit in Huntsville, Ont., and the G20 summit in Toronto.

As police continue to investigate, some users of the indymedia.orgwebsite that hosted the firebombing video have alleged harassment by law-enforcement officials and have taken steps to preserve their anonymity. The site is described as "a network of collectively run media outlets."

John Hollingsworth, part of the "editorial collective" of the Ottawa Indymedia page, said editors provide a "janitorial" service by dealing with inflammatory or inappropriate postings as necessary.**

"Being an 'open publishing' model, users of the site typically post content themselves without us knowing much about it," he wrote in an email. "We take no 'editorial' position on [the firebombing] as that is not what we do.

"We're pretty much a passive but secure vehicle for activists of various stripes to post their news and views. ... it is not a specifically 'anarchist' website by any means."

** - we know at least ONE "inflammatory" statement's still on the site, don't we?

- edited to attach PDF -

 

[Remius]

Not all anarchists go around firebombing banks or throwing rocks at police, and not all those that do are anarchists.

No, and I have no problem with those that use proper means of protest and social activism.  I don't agree with everything they stand for but I have no problem voicing their opinions the proper way.

Not all anarchists go around firebombing banks or throwing rocks at police and yes not all that do are anarchists.  But everyone who does is a criminal and should be treated as such.  This isn't about anarchists.  It's about criminals who are anarchists.  And don't think for a second that the MSM or the military community here is picking exclusively on anarchists.  We have our own criminals and we are just as critical of their actions and the MSM jumps on that as well. 

I find it funny that these groups, in their attempt to distance themselves from this, are using the old "where is the evidence" and it must be "a conspiracy by the man" and yet are so quick to use conspiracy theories and accusations (without evidence) to attack the "man".

Again, these yokels went too far.  Are now being labelled terrorists (rightfully so) and the extreme left is scrambling to do damage control (no pun intended).  They are victims of their own actions.  Actions, that the public in this country do not support.

 

[1feral1]

I would call it terrorism.

OWDU

 

[Retired AF Guy]

I would call it terrorism.

OWDU

So would I. It may of have consisted of a criminal act (arson), but the reason behind the act was not criminal (personal gain), but political. That makes it terrorism in my books.

 

[The Bread Guy]

National Post/CanWest version:

Police detectives investigating Tuesday’s bold firebombing of an uptown Ottawa bank have now identified suspects, all of whom live in Ottawa and are linked to an anti-establishment network ....

Globe & Mail version:

Police are confident that they are closing in on the people who firebombed a bank in an upscale Ottawa neighbourhood on Tuesday and made threats against upcoming G8-G20 meetings.

“I believe we have this in hand. I’m confident that we’ll make arrests and I think our leads are on the right track,” Ottawa police Chief Vern White said in an interview on Thursday.

Chief White acknowledged that he is taking a rare step by making such a statement, but he said he wants to reassure the community that Tuesday’s attack will not be the first in a wave of bombings.

“I think that [members of the community] trust that if we feel they should be comforted, we should do that,” he said ....

CBC.ca version:

Ottawa police continue to investigate the recent firebombing of a Royal Bank branch and are denying that they have identified suspects in the case.

Ottawa police Chief Vern White had said Thursday that police were "extremely confident" they would make arrests in the case and that they had solid leads already, partly because the purported arsonists posted a video of the incident online.

But on Friday, police refused to confirm that they had narrowed the search to a group of specific individuals from Ottawa, as suggested in a report in the Ottawa Citizen.

"As a former investigator myself, if [investigators] had positively confirmed their suspects, they would be in our cellblock," said Ottawa police spokesperson Kathy Larouche in an email to CBC Friday.

"The investigation is advancing. That is certain. However, it has not concluded." ....

Meanwhile, other responses to the response to the original claim of responsibility, one from "Red Power United" (which says it's organizing protests for G8/G20), attributed to the creator of the Facebook page:

Red Power United (Native Rights Movement) does not support such Anarchist behaviors nor has anyone in our Native networks or Native communities ever heard of a Aboriginal group called FFFC.

As a non violent movement and a social activist group, these acts of violence are unacceptable.

and another from WarriorPublications.com (PDF attached, if you can read the dark-font-on-dark-background graphics):

WarriorPublications.com Statement on RBC Arson Attack

May 21, 2010
Occupied Coast Salish Territory
(Vancouver, Canada)

The May 18, 2010, arson attack on the Royal Bank of Canada in Ottawa was clearly an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist action. It has had a strong impact across the country and invoked the wrath of the state. As both sabotage and propaganda, the attack was highly successful: the bank was almost totally destroyed while the RBC's funding of the genocidal Tar Sands was once again highlighted.

The attack appears to be by non-Native militants acting, in part, in solidarity with Native peoples in both BC (the 2010 Olympics and its aftermath) and northern Alberta (Tar Sands), both of which the RBC has been a main funder for.

The action and communique from the FFFC-Ottawa speaks for itself. In the days following, others (besides the government, corporations and pigs) have also taken the opportunity to speak; not against the RBC or genocide of Indigenous peoples, but against those who carried out the action.

Some have done so by invoking the struggle of Indigenous peoples itself as a way of condemning the attack. Some Native reformists and bureaucrats have attempted to impose themselves as some kind of 'leadership' over Indigenous peoples and resistance. One jet-setting actorvist has stated that those who support the struggle against the Tar Sands must abide by the 'leadership' of those on the 'front lines,' including nonviolence (although the only 'front line' he's familiar with is that at the airport check-in).

I personally know Dene from the Fort McMurray area who rejoiced at the news that an RBC had been fire-bombed as an act of anti-colonial solidarity. They are the real people—they have seen, and are seeing, family members die of cancers, their land and water toxified, their traditional way of life destroyed, as a result of the Tar Sands and RBC's financial support.

Not every Dene, or Indigenous person, will agree with the attack. Nor will every 'actorvist.' But then, not everyone agrees with flying around the world attending conferences or rallies. Or walking around in circles with flimsy placards. Yet, we know, or should know, that all these activities are necessary at times to build awareness, consciousness, solidarity, action, and to achieve our objective(s). That is why the principle of respect for a diversity of tactics is promoted.

It is ironic that in this year of 2010, the 20th anniversary of the 'Oka Crisis', when armed warriors confronted Canadian soldiers in the Kanienkehaka communities of Kanehsatake and Kahnawake, there are Indigenous 'defenders' now attempting to impose codes of 'nonviolence.'

Our peoples have engaged in over 500 years of resistance to colonization using a diversity of tactics, including armed resistance, blockades, occupations, protests, land reclamations, etc. Yes, people have died and many more have been injured, property destroyed, etc.—but colonialism is by its very nature violent.

Indigenous peoples in Canada suffer many casualties today. Suicides, drugs and alchohol, disease, toxic water, prisons, police violence, thousands of missing or murdered Native women. These are not the result of anti-colonial resistance, but that of colonial genocide. Yet, neither Canada nor the corporations involved in destroying land and life are ever described as 'violent.' It is only when there is a militant attack against them that there is a moralizing cry of violence.

To support the institutionalized violence of colonialism, or the state's monopoly on the use of violence, while condemning those who resist such violence, is nothing less than hypocrisy.

Yes, there is violence in resistance, there is love and joy, there is heartache, there is bitterness and hatred as well as hope and passion. Sounds like life, doesn't it? And those who risk their freedom in this life and death struggle should be respected for their courage and committment, not condemned.

In the Spirit of Total Resistance—Smash Capitalism!
Long Live the Class Warrior!