U of O prof acquitted of threatening
Judge rules comments were ‘boorish,’ but not meant to intimidate
A University of Ottawa geography professor was acquitted Wednesday of threatening to kill the then-director of the department in the summer of 2012 during “venting sessions” with colleagues that included references to Concordia University professor and mass murderer Valery Fabrikant.
Abdou Bannari, 50, was also acquitted of threatening to destroy university property with explosives when he told two members of human resources that he was an Arab man armed with dynamite then opened his jacked to show it was not true.
“The comments, even taken at face value, were not meant to intimidate,” Justice Gilles Renaud ruled. “That they are boorish are obvious.”
Court heard that Bannari was prone to “passionate hyperbole” and that he had a difficult relationship with Marc Brousseau, who was head of the department of geography last summer.
Brousseau testified Wednesday that his relationship with Bannari was “cordial and collegial” when they met in 1998. But several years ago, Brosseau was on a committee that passed on a recommendation to promote Bannari. He also said “the relationship became embittered” because Bannari did not agree with decisions Brosseau made as the chair of graduate studies.
Brosseau testified that Bannari had never been violent toward him. But during a faculty lunch at the Royal Oak in the summer of 2012, a professor confided to Brosseau that Bannari felt “persecuted” and had invoked the name Fabrikant. When a second professor reported that her friend Bannari said he understood Fabrikant, Brosseau said he took the threat seriously.
“If his friend is worried about it, I have reason to fear,” he said.
Fabrikant, a former engineering professor, killed four colleagues during a shooting spree at Concordia University in Montreal in 1992. Brousseau pointed out that Fabrikant’s first target was his department head.
Brosseau cancelled a class and was excused from an assembly before Bannari was banned from campus.
But when he was informed by the dean that Bannari had returned to campus, he cancelled two weeks of classes.
“Then I was deeply afraid,” he said. “If he’s not taking seriously a prohibition from the highest administration, he’s unpredictable.”
Renaud accepted that Brosseau feared for his life, as well as for his family and students.
“He suffered significant emotional distress,” Renaud said.
Still, Renaud emphasized that no criminal law was breached.
“The comments are, of course, inappropriate — and that’s the most polite words I can find — but they do not display a present intent to intimidate,” Renaud said. “I am not presiding over a civil trial.”
Renaud added that, though Bannari’s comments “are troubling,” only one witness could say with certainty that Brosseau’s name was mentioned in the same conversation as Fabrikant’s name.
Though one witness initially said that Bannari questioned whether he needed to settle the matter “in the street with a revolver,” he later said he could not be sure if the word revolver was used or if Bannari made a gun sign with his hand.
After the decision, Bannari stood outside the courthouse beside his lawyer, James Foord, who commented on his behalf.
“We are pleased. We are relieved. He wants to move on with his life,” Foord said.
Bannari has been on leave from the university since the charges were laid nearly a year ago. University of Ottawa spokesperson Caroline Milliard said Wednesday afternoon that it was too early to comment on Bannari’s future employment.
“The university will assess the verdict and its impact before making any comments,” Milliard said.