Ex-bureaucrat pleads guilty to firebombing

Charges against Clement’s alleged accomplice in the firebombing — 32-year-old Matthew Morgan-Brown — have been stayed by the Crown, citing lack of sufficient evidence.

Charges against a third man, 50-year-old Claude Haridge, have also been stayed, apart from a charge of careless storage of firearms which is still before the courts.

Clement, 58, also pleaded guilty to a charge of mischief in a February attack on another Royal Bank branch in Ottawa, in which windows and automated tellers were damaged. Three other charges against him related to the May 18 firebombing in Ottawa’s fashionable Glebe neighbourhood have been withdrawn.

The three men were arrested with great fanfare about a week before the June summits.

Clement’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said the low-key resolution backs up his contention from the outset that the incident was simply “a damage to property case,” not terrorism. He pointed out that the instigators took great pains to ensure no people would be injured in the firebombing.

Clement is to be sentenced at a hearing Dec. 6-7.

The stayed charges against the other two men could technically be revived within 12 months should new evidence come to light. But Morgan-Brown’s lawyer, Ian Clark, doubted that will occur in this case. He said it’s his understanding the police are no longer actively investigating the incident.