Saying the prosecution had provided sufficient evidence upon which a reasonably instructed trial jury might convict an accused, a judge on Friday rejected a defence application to have the terrorism case against a Windsor man tossed out.
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What Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia’s decision means is that the criminal trial of Seth Bertrand now proceeds to closing arguments by defence and Crown on April 9. After she finished reading out her ruling on the defence’s ‘directed verdict’ motion, lawyer Bobby Russon said the defence would not be calling any evidence of its own.
Following a months-long undercover operation led by the RCMP, Bertrand, now 22, was charged in 2022 with having “knowingly participated in or contributed to, directly or indirectly, the activities of a terrorist group … for the purpose of enhancing the ability of the terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity.”
It’s a fairly new and rarely applied criminal charge in Canada. The maximum sentence upon conviction is 10 years imprisonment.
At a Feb. 7 mid-trial hearing, Russon conceded the Crown had “some evidence in relation to some elements” that Bertrand participated in or contributed to a listed terrorist group, namely the Atomwaffen Division, aka National Socialist Order. But he argued the Crown had provided no evidence in regards to the accused either enhancing or facilitating that banned group’s activities.
During the trial, the prosecution brought up Bertrand’s past that included a string of unsettling incidents in Windsor targeting a gay couple’s home and the Trans Wellness Ontario office in 2021 at around the same time he filled in an application to join Atomwaffen. Bertrand pleaded guilty in 2022 to three counts of mischief in connection to those attacks.
“He committed hate crimes and vandalism — not terrorism,” said Russon, adding his young client did not know at the time that the group he was seeking to join had been listed as a banned global terrorist entity.
Referring to comments Bertrand made during the police investigation, which included the use of undercover agents, Justice Carroccia on Friday said “the accused espoused the ideology of an organization that he himself identified as a domestic terrorist organization. He applied to join that terrorist organization, pledged his loyalty, and wanted to be part of the group.
“He thereafter engaged in conduct that was designed to instil fear, that are hate-motivated crimes to show his commitment.”
During the early-February hearing, even his lawyer conceded Bertrand held views on gays, Blacks and Jews that were “problematic” and even “deplorable.” But harbouring such vile thoughts and expressing those views does not make the young Windsor man a terrorist, Russon argued.
It will now be up to the judge, after hearing closing arguments in April, to decide whether the Crown has made its case that the young Windsor man’s actions were for “the purpose of enhancing the ability of the terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity.”