Fred Bracken found dead in Cambodian hotel
Even in death, Fred Bracken ended up making headlines.
For years, Bracken’s name was linked to Niagara political controversies, lawsuits and arrests.
He harangued local politicians and journalists, often following them with a hand-held video camera and calling them corrupt communists and “loons.” A boisterous supporter of U.S. president Donald Trump, Bracken would stage one-man protests in St. Catharines carrying vulgar signs while dressed in a distinctive bright yellow, puffy coat and floppy green hat.
One of those protests turned violent and Bracken was sentenced last September to 90 days in jail for assault causing bodily harm.
Closely linked to one of Niagara’s most controversial politicians, Bracken became embroiled in several legal disputes with elected officials.
Bracken, a 41-year-old dual American-Canadian citizen, made headlines again this week, but this time in a newspaper half a world away.
On Friday, the Kampuchea Thmey Daily in Cambodia reported Bracken died Thursday of a heart attack related to an overdose in a room at the RiverStar hotel in Phnom Penh.
Hotel staff confirmed in an email to The Standard that Bracken’s body was found in a room by hotel cleaning staff.
The Cambodian newspaper published photos of a hotel room, purported to be Bracken’s, which showed several prescription drugs on a table including the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, Diazepam (also known as Valium) and Cialis, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction.
Kampuchea Thmey Daily also published a photo of Bracken’s American passport which has an issuing date of April 14, 2019.
The Cambodian police did not respond to an interview request Saturday.
The Standard did not receive a reply to a message sent to Bracken’s email Saturday.
It is not clear when Bracken arrived in Cambodia or why he was there.
In September, Bracken told the Ontario Court of Justice he was leaving Canada to live in Florida after he served 90 days for assaulting a Brock University student.
The assault happened during Bracken’s one-person protest at the university on Nov. 1, 2016.
Bracken, megaphone in hand,
was holding a large sign that read, “Trump is right: F—k China. F—k Mexico. Save Our Jobs” near the international students’ centre.
He attracted a crowd of angry students, one of whom grabbed Bracken’s sign.
Bracken responded by slugging the victim in the face. After he fell to the ground, Bracken punched him four more times and kicked him in the head before being dragged away by bystanders.
A decade prior, Bracken was convicted of two firearms-related charges and drug possession and served 2½ years in a penitentiary.
His protests earned him the ire of local politicians more than once, including in Fort Erie, where he was banned from town hall.
In 2014, he stood outside town hall with a megaphone and called municipal employees communists and lairs. He was arrested for trespassing and ordered not to the return to the
property.
In 2017, Bracken got the order overturned in court.
He often held his one-man protests outside the St. Catharines’ courthouse and the former Niagara Regional Police headquarters in downtown St. Catharines.
Bracken was a friend of disgraced former St. Catharines regional councillor Andy Petrowski and joined the politician in an attempt to sue most of regional council in spring 2017. The
lawsuit was an attempt to stop the release of integrity commissioner reports that found Petrowski had violated council’s code of conduct on three occasions.
Claiming the reports violated Petrowski’s right to free expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and would hurt Petrowki’s reputation, the pair sued 24 of 31 regional councillors. The case was thrown out of court by Justice David Edwards, who ordered Bracken and Petrowski to pay the Region $5,500 in legal costs.
Bracken and the Region later came to an arrangement in which Bracken would not have to pay the fine in exchange for “fair consideration” in another, undisclosed matter.
Bracken was also at the centre of another controversy at Niagara Region in December 2017, when he began shouting at St. Catharines resident Mohammed Al Jumaily who was making a presentation to council. From the gallery, Bracken called Al Jumaily a terrorist. After The Standard published a story about the incident, Bracken wrote an email to the newspaper saying he also called the entire council terrorists and there nothing racist about what he said.
When Bracken was convicted for assaulting the Brock student, Judge Peter T. Bishop said Bracken continuously believes himself to be a victim, and failed to understand the seriousness of his crime.
Kampuchea Thmey Daily reported that Bracken’s body was being kept in a temple for burial. It was not clear if the body would be returned to the United States or Canada.