Domestic Terrorism/Public Attacks on CAF Personnel

[Scoobie Newbie]

The whole gun thing shows how obtuse our political leadership is.

 

[The Bread Guy]

For the record, here's what the Criminal Code says about treason:

Treason and other Offences against the Queen’s Authority and Person


High treason

    46. (1) Every one commits high treason who, in Canada,

        (a) kills or attempts to kill Her Majesty, or does her any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maims or wounds her, or imprisons or restrains her;

        (b) levies war against Canada or does any act preparatory thereto; or

        (c) assists an enemy at war with Canada, or any armed forces against whom Canadian Forces are engaged in hostilities, whether or not a state of war exists between Canada and the country whose forces they are.
   
Treason

    (2) Every one commits treason who, in Canada,

        (a) uses force or violence for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Canada or a province;

        (b) without lawful authority, communicates or makes available to an agent of a state other than Canada, military or scientific information or any sketch, plan, model, article, note or document of a military or scientific character that he knows or ought to know may be used by that state for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or defence of Canada;

        (c) conspires with any person to commit high treason or to do anything mentioned in paragraph (a);

        (d) forms an intention to do anything that is high treason or that is mentioned in paragraph (a) and manifests that intention by an overt act; or

        (e) conspires with any person to do anything mentioned in paragraph (b) or forms an intention to do anything mentioned in paragraph (b) and manifests that intention by an overt act.
   
Canadian citizen

    (3) Notwithstanding subsection (1) or (2), a Canadian citizen or a person who owes allegiance to Her Majesty in right of Canada,

        (a) commits high treason if, while in or out of Canada, he does anything mentioned in subsection (1); or

        (b) commits treason if, while in or out of Canada, he does anything mentioned in subsection (2).

Overt act

    (4) Where it is treason to conspire with any person, the act of conspiring is an overt act of treason.

Punishment for high treason

    47. (1) Every one who commits high treason is guilty of an indictable offence and shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life.

Punishment for treason

    (2) Every one who commits treason is guilty of an indictable offence and liable

        (a) to be sentenced to imprisonment for life if he is guilty of an offence under paragraph 46(2)(a), (c) or (d);

        (b) to be sentenced to imprisonment for life if he is guilty of an offence under paragraph 46(2)(b) or (e) committed while a state of war exists between Canada and another country; or

        (c) to be sentenced to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years if he is guilty of an offence under paragraph 46(2)(b) or (e) committed while no state of war exists between Canada and another country.

Corroboration

    (3) No person shall be convicted of high treason or treason on the evidence of only one witness, unless the evidence of that witness is corroborated in a material particular by evidence that implicates the accused.

Minimum punishment

    (4) For the purposes of Part XXIII, the sentence of imprisonment for life prescribed by subsection (1) is a minimum punishment.

Limitation

    48. (1) No proceedings for an offence of treason as defined by paragraph 46(2)(a) shall be commenced more than three years after the time when the offence is alleged to have been committed.
    Marginal note:Information for treasonable words

    (2) No proceedings shall be commenced under section 47 in respect of an overt act of treason expressed or declared by open and considered speech unless

        (a) an information setting out the overt act and the words by which it was expressed or declared is laid under oath before a justice within six days after the time when the words are alleged to have been spoken; and

        (b) a warrant for the arrest of the accused is issued within ten days after the time when the information is laid.

 

[George Wallace]

So.  According to those criteria, any sentence less than "Life Imprisonment" is not following in the 'Spirit of the Law' as laid out by our Criminal Code. 

It would seem that so far, our Courts have not been following the 'Spirit of the Law' in sentencing all our 'Terror Cases' to date.

We are our own worse enemy.

 

[The Bread Guy]

So.  According to those criteria, any sentence less than "Life Imprisonment" is not following in the 'Spirit of the Law' as laid out by our Criminal Code. 

It would seem that so far, our Courts have not been following the 'Spirit of the Law' in sentencing all our 'Terror Cases' to date.

How many of those cases found someone guilty of treason or high treason, though?

 

[George Wallace]

That is just it.  None.  The Courts are too leery to sentence a person for Treason, even if they fill the criteria. 

 

[Remius]

All things considered, we're not the only country to be that way.

It seems worldwide that convictions for treason are rare occurences in most countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_convicted_of_treason

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

That is just it.  None.  The Courts are too leery to sentence a person for Treason, even if they fill the criteria.

Don't blame the Courts. It is the Crown Prosecutors, originally "guided" by the police, that decide what charge to lay against the accused criminals.

Give the Court the charge of treason or high treason and provide them with the appropriate evidence and they will find the accused guilty and then punish them according to the law.

 

[MilEME09]

Perhaps as more of a shock factor, we need to capture a Canadian who has joined ISIL, and put him on trial for High treason. The fact it's never been done might be more of a shock factor to the average public then one else.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Perhaps as more of a shock factor, we need to capture a Canadian who has joined ISIL, and put him on trial for High treason.

Assuming one lives long enough to be nabbed....

.... Mohammed Hafez, (chairman of the department of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. ) who studies (ISIS/ISIL) and use of transnational suicide bombers (said) Suicide bombers often are drawn from among the group’s cadre of thousands of foreign fighters. “They are trying to put people in the right spot,” he says. “If you have no skills or you can’t speak Arabic, the easiest thing for you to do is drive a car and blow it up. Everyone knows how to drive.” Skilled and ­experienced fighters, he says, are needed for combat ....

 

[The Bread Guy]

Students at the Edmonton Islamic Academy made a big donation to some special Canadian military families on Wednesday.

The children presented a cheque for $10 thousand to the Edmonton Garrison’s Second in Command Lt. Col. Mike Connelly on Wednesday morning. The money will be passed along to the families of the fallen soldiers in the attacks in Ottawa and Quebec in October ....

More here

 

[TCM621]

More here

Canada's Muslim community has really served as a model of how Muslims should respond to Islamic terrorism. It is sad that they waited this long but more Muslims speaking out makes the terrorist message less powerful.

 

[McG]

The CAF victims of these attacks have been voted Canada's news makers of the year.

Soldiers murdered on home soil chosen as Canada’s Newsmaker of the Year
Colin Perkel, Canadian Press
The Globe and Mail
21 Dec 2014

Two Canadians killed in cold blood on home soil for simply wearing a soldier’s uniform have been selected the country’s Newsmaker of the Year for 2014.

Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, whose senseless murders in October shook the country, were the top choice of editors and news directors surveyed by The Canadian Press.

“It’s very sad but very deserved,” Vincent’s eldest sister Louise Vincent said in her first interview since his funeral.

“First it was a family death and after that we realized that his death was not only ours.”

Indeed, the two unsuspecting and unarmed soldiers quickly became household names for reasons Canadians could barely fathom.

Vincent, 53, described as a quiet, determined person who was always looking to help others, died Oct. 20 after a “radicalized” Martin Rouleau, 25, deliberately ran him down in a parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.

Two days later, with the country struggling to process Vincent’s death, terror gripped the nation’s capital when Michael Zehaf Bibeau shot Cirillo, 24, in the back before storming Parliament Hill and dying in a hail of bullets.

The photogenic, dog-loving reservist had been quietly standing ceremonial guard with an unloaded weapon at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier when he was attacked without warning.

Once again, Canadians were dismayed and saddened at the prospect of a soldier killed on home soil — this time someone who might have looked like a “big tough man” but was, as a cousin said, “such a kid at heart.” Photographs of Cirillo’s dogs poking their heads from beneath the fence of the family home in Hamilton only added to the palpable grief.

Even before his state-like funeral, Canadians learned of the valiant efforts to save and comfort the dying father of a five-year-old boy.

“You are so loved,” lawyer Barbara Winters said she repeatedly told him.

In scenes not seen since the repatriation of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, thousands of Canadians lined the “Highway of Heroes” to show support for the two men.

“These two men did not ask to be in the news,” said Fred Hutton, news director with VOCM in St. John’s.

“They were random victims who were thrust into the spotlight by deranged individuals who made us all question our own safety.”

Michel Lorrain, general director with Cogeco nouvelles in Montreal, noted in his survey comments how rare it is in Canadian history for soldiers to be killed outside of a combat mission.

Their deaths, said Murray Guy, managing editor of the Times and Transcript in Moncton, N.B., symbolized Canada’s “sudden loss of innocence in a world where we thought we were all detached from the dark threat of terror that has plagued so many seemingly so far away.”

In all, Cirillo and Vincent picked up 23 of the 85 votes cast to be named 2014 Newsmaker.

Cirillo’s still-grieving family refused to comment but Louise Vincent called the result a show of respect for the depths of their sacrifice.

…

To see the whole story and runners-up, see here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/soldiers-killed-on-home-soil-chosen-as-canadas-newsmaker-of-the-year/article22170991/

 

[jollyjacktar]

This is interesting.

Updated
Kevin Vickers to be named ambassador to Ireland

Sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons lauded for confronting shooter on Parliament Hill

CBC NewsPosted: Jan 08, 2015 9:27 AM ET|Last Updated: Jan 08, 2015 10:46 AM ET
Kevin Vickers, the House of Commons sergeant-at-arms who became a household name in October after his confrontation with a gunman in the hallway on Parliament Hill, will be Canada's next ambassador to Ireland.

Vickers will replace Loyola Hearn, who has been in the post since Jan. 12, 2011. The former Conservative cabinet minister from Newfoundland and Labrador had retired from politics three years before he was appointed.

Full story here http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kevin-vickers-to-be-named-ambassador-to-ireland-1.2893764

 

[The Bread Guy]

Oopsie ....

The RCMP tried to restrict the movements of Martin Couture-Rouleau weeks before he used a car to run down two Canadian soldiers in Quebec, but prosecutors said they didn't have enough evidence to obtain a peace bond, CBC News has learned.

(....)

Police knew the 25-year-old as a Muslim convert who made increasingly radical statements on social media and had arrested him in July before he could board a plane to Turkey, only to be told they had to let him go.

"We interviewed him and [with] the information we had and the statement he provided to us, we [did] not have enough evidence to charge him and to detain him," RCMP Supt. Martine Fontaine told CBC News.
Martin

Couture-Rouleau was released after RCMP seized his passport and added him to the 90 or so individuals on their watch list.

Now, CBC News has learned officers tried several weeks later to place Couture-Rouleau under a peace bond, which would have forced him to agree to meet certain conditions or go to jail.

Once again, prosecutors told police they didn't have enough evidence under the law, which says there must be evidence that a person will commit a terrorism offence.

(....)

Peace bonds have only been used eight times since 2001 for terrorism suspects — six of them related to members of the 2006 Toronto 18 plot, and two others against a couple who are now charged with plotting to blow up the B.C. legislature. The pair —​ John Nuttall and Amanda Korody —​ recently pleaded not guilty in a Vancouver court.

Critics claim that's proof police aren't using the tools they already have. But government sources insist the current legal requirements put the tools too far out of reach ....

 

[daftandbarmy]

Not a bit like 'Independence Day' it seems...


How top military brass handled shooting on Oct. 22


As government officials scrambled to find out what was occurring during the Oct. 22 attack on the National War Memorial and Parliament Hill, one of the’s top priorities of the Chief of Defence Staff was determining whether the event was an isolated attack.

Emails exchanged by Gen. Tom Lawson and other military brass, obtained by the Citizen, also show one top official briefly locked out of headquarters and others just across from Parliament Hill leaving their buildings despite a police lockdown in the centre core.

But overall, their emails reflect a calm, methodical approach to assessing the events, in sharp contrast to the confusion reported at some Canadian Forces bases.

“Interested in ensuring we have visibility across the nation to confirm that this is localized,” Lawson wrote his colleagues within an hour of the shooting. He sent three similar messages that morning from his BlackBerry while under lockdown in the Langevin Block across from Parliament Hill.

At 11 a.m., Lawson wrote to his second-in-command, Lt.-Gen. Guy Thibault: “I need to be able to report to NSA (the prime minister’s National Security Adviser) that we have done a nationwide scan and found ‘picture clean,’ or the alternative. Can we have a call-out fan conducted, and a check with NORAD?”

Around the same time, there was minor confusion when Lawson and two colleagues were taken out of the Langevin Block.

“We are cleared to leave now, and will stand by to hear where to meet the car,” Lawson wrote. But Maj.-Gen. Michael Hood, director of staff, advised that “press is reporting that there is an active shooter on the Hill. Recommend you stay put and under cover.” Nonetheless, Lawson was driven away minutes later, along with his personal assistant and senior legal officer, Maj.-Gen. Blaise Cathcart.




http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/military-brass-quickly-in-touch-with-u-s-officials-on-day-of-shootings

 

[vonGarvin]

At 11 a.m., Lawson wrote to his second-in-command, Lt.-Gen. Guy Thibault: “I need to be able to report to NSA (the prime minister’s National Security Adviser) that we have done a nationwide scan and found ‘picture clean,’ or the alternative. Can we have a call-out fan conducted, and a check with NORAD?”

I see that they fixed their earlier error.  Initially this story came with a tag line along the lines of "Harper was contacting the US during the attack".  They misread NSA to mean the US agency.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Sounds like the journalists cast a wide net into DND, likely for an overly broad ATIP on anything related to "negative Ceremonial Guard incidents." These certainly aren't the first times a drunk tourist has pissed on the Memorial or some idiots tried to grab a rifle or harass the Guards. Obviously, they're now trying to build a narrative of "see, you were warned the soldiers at the Memorial were in danger."

If you have a look at "here's the requests DND's completed" list, you can see "trawler" requests like "Please provide a list of all briefing material, reports, memoranda and presentations prepared for the VCDS for the period of 1 to 30 Sep 14. Please include potential cabinet confidence," or "All emails and Blackberry pins to and from the CDS between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 22, 2014. Please include potential cabinet confidence," from which I'm guessing they can either 1) bore down with more specific requests, or 2)  pick/choose from the cull to write about.

 

[The Bread Guy]

One year later ....

A solemn ceremony was held Tuesday for Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, who was killed in a politically motivated hit-and-run attack in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, one year ago today.

The event, organized by the Royal Canadian Legion of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, celebrated the memory of the Canadian Services officer killed in a parking lot by jihadist Martin Couture-Rouleau ....

More memorials coming Thursday:

A ceremonial service to commemorate the Parliament Hill shooting and the lives of two soldiers killed on their home soil last October is set to take place at the National War Memorial on Thursday morning.

The prime minister, Governor General, military officials, Ottawa's mayor and members of the public will gather around the granite arch of the memorial to pay tribute.

The ceremony will take place one year to the day after Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, was shot in the back three times while standing guard at the memorial, the first event in a five-minute attack during which the shooter stormed Parliament Hill's Centre Block.

The ceremony will also commemorate Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, a 53-year-old Canadian Forces member who was purposefully run down in a hit-and-run attack in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., just two days before Cirillo was slain.

The families of the two soldiers are expected to attend the ceremony.

Outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to lay a wreath at the memorial.

The ceremony will include the flyby of CF-18 Hornets in "missing man" formation at 11:20 a.m., a 21-gun salute by the 30th Field Artillery Regiment and a speech by Gov. Gen David Johnston ....

 

[CherryCherry]

Canada's Muslim community has really served as a model of how Muslims should respond to Islamic terrorism. It is sad that they waited this long but more Muslims speaking out makes the terrorist message less powerful.

I know this comment was made nearly a year ago, but I can't let it lie. It's pretty offensive for you to expect that a certain people conduct themselves a certain way in order to not be lumped in with the extremists of any group, religion, classification, or organisation to which they belong. You might be Christian, for example, but I don't expect you to speak out against the loony tunes who harass women outside sexual health clinics to prove you're not one of them.

I've seen time and time again people posting in these very forums, referring directly to pieces of legislation which instruct us that persons are innocent until proven guilty. Expecting Muslims to meet your standard of behaviour goes against this.

"It is sad that they waited this long"? No one was looking for this message before the media sought it out. What's really sad is that they feel they have to do this to not be seen negatively. Anyone with half a brain knows that what Middle Eastern terrorists are doing and preaching is a bastardisation of Islam that is unrecognisable to Muslims.

 

[PuckChaser]

The difference is though, that Christians in Canada have been around for generations, so people know what to expect. Islam is new as a major western religion, and needs an active PR campaign to show what it's all about. I would expect the Canadian Jewish congress to stand up publicly against terrorism if they had a fundamentalist group suicide bombing, and cutting people's heads off that were non-believers. That's how western society works, we're so influenced by images we see in media, and so quick to tar everyone with the same brush, that an active campaign needs to be held to distance from the crazies. One only needs to look at the fear campaign against Harper and his Christian values. Social media would have made you believe he was going to personally bomb an abortion clinic.