Man avoids conviction for emailing threats to regional chair
Three local men sentenced in last 17 months for threatening politicians
A man with schizophrenia who emailed threats to regional Chair Karen Redman was handed a conditional discharge on Wednesday.
He is the third local man in the last 17 months to be sentenced for threatening a politician.
One man threatened to shoot Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis; the other threatened to hang Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
While at a church service last March 12, Redman received 14 emails from the man.
“While several of the emails were nonsensical, certain communications contained overt threats to Ms. Redman and her family,” Justice Melanie Sopinka said in Kitchener court.
One referred to a “military terrorist attack” on Redman’s residence.
Another “indicated that he would send a killer to her doorstep like Barry and Honey Sherman, a reference to a well-known homicide case in the media at that time,” Sopinka said.
The Kitchener man, 34, was arrested the day after sending the emails and spent four days in custody. He pleaded guilty to criminal harassment.
The man was diagnosed with schizophrenia years ago. He had been released from hospital not long before sending the emails and “was under the delusional belief that Waterloo Region was experimenting with people with schizophrenia,” Sopinka said.
The emails prompted Redman to increase security measures, “which she had not felt to be necessary previously despite many years of public service,” the judge said.
“It is clear that Ms. Redman experienced ongoing psychological harm as she was unable to get the disturbing nature of (his) words out of her thoughts when attending church services for some period of time after the events,” Sopinka said.
The Crown asked for 30 days of house arrest. The judge agreed to a recommendation from defence lawyer Nick Gehl for a conditional discharge with no conviction registered.
The man got credit for pleading guilty, “which saved Ms. Redman the additional trauma of attending court and testifying at a trial,” the judge said.
He said he regrets sending the emails. He has no criminal record. A conviction could affect his employment prospects, court was told.
The man’s actions were “motivated entirely by the delusions he was experiencing as a result of his mental-health struggles,” the judge said.
This, she said, shifts the primary goal of sentencing from deterrence to rehabilitation.
“Ultimately, by emphasizing rehabilitation and treatment for the underlying mental-health issues, the public is best protected.”
The man has already made significant strides. He has been in counselling and is under the care of a psychiatrist and taking medication.
“He has a stable residence and
Ultimately, by emphasizing rehabilitation and treatment for the underlying mental health issues, the public is best protected.
MELANIE SOPINKA, JUDGE
productive employment,” the judge said. “From all sources, it appears (he) has already successfully pursued many rehabilitative goals.”
The judge put him on probation for three years. He must take counselling. He can have no contact with Redman or her family.
Sopinka also ordered him to give a DNA sample for the national database and handed him a 10-year weapons ban.
Threat to Tim Louis
Three months ago, an Elmira man pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Kitchener-Conestoga Liberal MP Tim Louis.
“You better hope I never find you alone, Tim,” the man wrote Louis in an email in February 2023. “You are a disgusting piece of s---. I hope you die a foul death.”
Two minutes later, he sent another email: “I would love to put a bullet in your ignorant face.”
The man, 45, previously asked Louis, “Do you honestly believe that all of us in Kitchener-Conestoga who are outdoors people and hunt every fall with legally owned firearms are a threat to the safety of all our fellow citizens?”
The day after the threat, police searched his house and found six rifles and shotguns, court was told.
He had a licence to own guns, but all of the firearms were improperly stored. One was leaning against a wall beside his computer. Another was leaning against a wall in the kitchen beside empty alcohol bottles.
He was arrested outside Food Basics in Elmira.
Louis was about to fly home from Ottawa the day of the threat, before police found the man.
“Before I could leave for the airport, police contacted me and told me that for my safety, I should remain in Ottawa that night,” the MP wrote in a victim impact statement read aloud by Crown prosecutor Joshua White.
“I was also asked to contact my wife and daughter with the following instructions from police: ‘Be sure the doors and windows are all locked, close the blinds and keep away from the windows.’ ”
At the time, it was unknown if the man knew Louis’s home address.
“I was told the police would be patrolling the neighbourhood until they were able to make an arrest,” he wrote.
“As a husband and father, I was less concerned about my own safety. The only thing I wanted to do was get home to my family.”
He said Parliamentary Protective Service gave him a mobile device with a panic button.
The threat forced him to change his behaviour.
“Through social media, I used to post in advance where I was intending to be,” Louis wrote. “I would also post the location of events that I was currently at, encouraging people to stop for a conversation, ask questions and share thoughts.
“I no longer share that information in advance. Now I only post on social media letting people know about events I have previously attended.”
Louis said he found it “particularly concerning” that the man had firearms improperly stored in his house.
“The thought of a volunteer or one of my family members knocking on the door of someone who has a readily accessible firearm is a terrifying thought,” he said.
“I am concerned about future elections,” Louis continued. “This concern extends to public servants from all levels of government, regardless of their political stripes. Threats of violence like the incident aimed at me or anonymous threats on social media pose a significant risk to our freedom and our democracy.”
Freedom of expression must be protected, “but hateful and threatening language that goes beyond the legal protections of freedom of expression impacts the freedoms and rights of others in society,” Louis wrote.
The man is employed and has no prior criminal record.
When he threatened Louis, the man was lonely, depressed and drinking too much, said his defence lawyer, Scott Grainger. He was so drunk he does not recall emailing the threats.
The man has abstained from alcohol since his arrest and has taken counselling, Grainger said.
He pleaded guilty to uttering death threats and carelessly storing firearms.
Justice Karey Katzsch agreed to a recommendation from the Crown and defence for four months of house arrest followed by two months under a curfew.
He must complete 50 hours of community service and give a DNA sample for the national database. He agreed to forfeit his firearms and licence to own guns. He is now under a 10-year weapons ban. He can have no contact with Louis.
“Everyone in our society has the right to freedom of speech and to express opinions,” the judge told the man. “But where the line is drawn is where it becomes threatening, violent or criminal conduct …”
Threat to Justin Trudeau
In October 2022, a Kitchener man was sentenced to 60 days of house arrest for threatening to hang Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The man, 33, was also ordered to do 100 hours of community service.
At a large protest at Trudeau’s election campaign stop in Cambridge on Aug. 29, 2021, the man held up a poster depicting a hangman leading the federal Liberal leader to a noose.
“I’m gonna hang the (expletive) for treason if I get ahold of him,” he said in a video filmed at the protest. He later said, “Get off the (expletive) bus — I’ll punch your (expletive) face in.”
A $2,000 fine proposed by the Crown was too lenient, said Justice Craig Parry.
“Such anti-democratic and violent conduct must stop,” he said. “It is incumbent on the court to make that message clear.”
Violent and/or unlawful public protests “have been on the rise in this country recently and especially since the onset of the pandemic,” the judge said.
“In my view, this court bears the obligation to express in unambiguous terms that violence and otherwise unlawful protests will not be tolerated … because they pose a threat to the integrity of our democratic constitutional order.
“The court, therefore, must denounce such unlawful conduct and deter others from emulating such conduct.”