Daniel Leblanc
Police are confident that they are closing in on the people who firebombed a bank in an upscale Ottawa neighbourhood on Tuesday and made threats against upcoming G8-G20 meetings.
“I believe we have this in hand. I’m confident that we’ll make arrests and I think our leads are on the right track,” Ottawa police Chief Vern White said in an interview on Thursday.
Chief White acknowledged that he is taking a rare step by making such a statement, but he said he wants to reassure the community that Tuesday’s attack will not be the first in a wave of bombings.
“I think that [members of the community] trust that if we feel they should be comforted, we should do that,” he said.
Chief White said police benefited from the fact that the people who firebombed the RBC branch went on to post a video on an Ottawa website, along with a message stating the bank was targeted because of its sponsorship of the Vancouver Olympics.
“The Games in Vancouver are now over, but resistance continues. An RBC branch can be found in every corner of Kanada,” read the post, signed by a group calling itself FFFC-Ottawa.
The group also made a threat against the meetings of the G8 and the G20 in Muskoka and Toronto next month.
“We will be there,” it said.
But Chief White said he is confident police will be able to contain the threat, calling the attack disgusting and gutless.
“People might say they’re expressing themselves. That’s bullshit,” he said. “This is not an expression of concerns. These people are criminals and we’ll treat them that way”.
The firebombing occurred around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Ottawa neighbourhood known as the Glebe, close to the city’s downtown.
“This is not vandalism. For me, this is domestic terrorism,” Chief White said.
“The community has been terrorized by the activities of a group that is speaking against the public, in a way”. >>>
