Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says
Related: Bank firebomb suspects hung out briefly at Ottawa cafe | Toronto banks review G20 security after Ottawa RBC fire | RBC firebombed as protest, group claims
Gary Dimmock, The Ottawa Citizen
May 28, 2010
The man who rented the SUV believed to have been used as a getaway car in last week’s firebombing of a Glebe bank says he’s “absolutely not” linked to the attack.
The retired 58-year-old public servant also says that he knows nothing about the incident. He says he didn’t loan the vehicle to anyone and, he added that if it had been stolen he would have reported it to police.
The Ottawa man also said that he, alone, put 1,500 kilometres on the SUV’s odometer in just two days, driving from Ottawa to Peterborough and back, not once but twice to help his brother with “something.”
The 2010 GMC Acadia was rented by the man from a ByWard Market agency on May 17, a day before the firebombing of a Royal Bank of Canada branch on Bank Street around 3:30 a.m.
“I’ve been told not to talk. I’m worried and I need to talk to my lawyer,” he told the Citizen Friday afternoon.
Although the Citizen knows the man’s identity, his name is not being used because he has not been charged with any crime.
When he rented the vehicle, the man declined insurance and re-fill service charges. He registered himself as the only driver and he returned the SUV on time. He used his MasterCard and a valid driver’s licence with an out-of-date address to rent the SUV.
Ottawa police detectives have seized the SUV and a forensics team has been through the vehicle, dusting for fingerprints inside and out.
Police are also analyzing its floor mats for evidence in what is almost certainly the police department’s highest profile case of the year.
Upon its return, it did not smell of gas or smoke and except for an old penny in the console, it was relatively clean.
The rented SUV is equipped with a police-traceable identification number and an OnStar Communications system, which records the vehicle’s exact locations, speed and direction at any given time. Police routinely use search warrants to seize such records.
It is understood that police detectives are exploring the rented vehicle’s whereabouts from May 17 to May 19.
Ottawa police Chief Vern White has stated that he is confident arrests will be made soon in the hunt for the FFFC-Ottawa anarchist group who posted a “catch-me-if-you-can” video of the firebombing online. It was filmed from across the street, kitty-corner to the RBC branch at the corner of First Avenue and Bank Street in trendy Glebe.
The retired public servant spends some of his free time at a coffee shop in Chinatown, considered a meeting place for Ottawa’s anti-establishment network, which protests big business, world government summits, and cuts to welfare.
The firebombing by anarchist group FFFC-Ottawa was an unsophisticated attack and detectives have collected trace evidence from the burned-out bank.
The police department has also secured security video from storefronts along Bank Street and First Avenue, including high-definition images.
The “homegrown terrorists” have said they attacked the bank because it sponsored the Vancouver Olympics, which they say was staged on stolen Indian land.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been briefed about the case because the firebombers posted an online statement saying they will be at the upcoming G8 summit in Huntsville, Ont.
Since 2007, RBC branches across Canada have been targeted in dozens of attacks by Canadian anarchists and other extremists who view the bank as a symbol of corporate greed. RBC’s major sponsorship of February’s Olympic Games in Vancouver brought the simmering hostility to a boil.
Police have asked anyone with inside information about the firebombing to call them.
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June 8th, 2010 at 8:43 am
[...] to Gaza killing 16 | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Top Construction [...]
June 8th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
[...] to Gaza killing 16 | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Top Construction [...]
June 12th, 2010 at 4:39 am
[...] to Gaza killing 16 | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Top Construction [...]
June 21st, 2010 at 3:48 am
[...] Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Bank firebomb suspects hung out briefly at Ottawa cafe | Toronto banks review G20 security after [...]
June 21st, 2010 at 5:18 am
[...] to Gaza killing 16 | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Top Construction [...]
June 25th, 2010 at 1:35 am
[...] to Gaza killing 16 | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Top Construction [...]
June 27th, 2010 at 7:45 am
[...] to Gaza killing 16 | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Top Construction [...]
June 28th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
[...] ahead with firebombing investigation | Three held in bank firebombing may face terrorism charges | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Bank firebomb suspects hung out briefly at Ottawa cafe | Toronto banks review G20 security after [...]