2010-11-09
JOAN BRYDEN
Roger Clement’s plea Tuesday marks a anticlimactic end to what Ottawa police chief Vern White once characterized as a case of “domestic terrorism.”
The firebombing took on political overtones after an anti-establishment group calling itself “Fighting For Freedom Coalition—Ottawa” claimed responsibility.
In an online statement, the group said it was targeting the Royal Bank for financing Alberta’s oilsands and sponsoring the Vancouver Olympics. The group also warned it would take further action the following month at the G8/G20 leaders’ summits in Huntsville, Ont., and Toronto.
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Three other charges against him related to the May 18 firebombing in Ottawa’s fashionable Glebe neighbourhood have been withdrawn.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.