An Ottawa judge denied bail Wednesday, July 2 to the suspect charged with vandalizing Canada’s National Holocaust Monument. He has been given until his next court date, scheduled for July 9, to seek out a lawyer. He will remain in custody until then.
Ottawa police allege that on or about June 9, bright red paint was applied to Canada’s National Holocaust Monument with the words “FEED ME”.
The defacement was investigated by the Hate Crime and Bias Unit of the Ottawa Police Service. On June 27, Ottawa police arrested and charged Iain Aspenlieder, 46, a former lawyer working for The City of Ottawa, with mischief to a war monument, mischief exceeding $5,000, and harassment by threatening conduct, which has a potential incarceration period of up to 10 years.
Aspenlieder had been on leave from his job as a lawyer with the City of Ottawa. He was subsequently let go on June 29, city officials confirmed.
The accused appeared in court wearing a dark grey T-shirt with a rainbow on the front.
His original bail hearing was held on Saturday, June 28, but the Justice of the Peace Stephen Louis Dibblee, had reserved his decision until the first working day after the Canada Day holiday.
There is a court-ordered publication ban on the bail hearing, preventing the media from publishing any details of the justice of the peace’s decision, nor submissions from the Crown prosecutor or the defence, or anything that the accused might have said.
At the end of the nearly one-hour long hearing, after Dibblee had finished reading out his decision to keep the suspect in custody, a man sitting in the courtroom’s public gallery called out, “Free Palestine! Free Palestine!”
The judge told the man to stop, and the man replied, “Sorry, Your Honour. I won’t say ‘Free Palestine’ again.” The judge then told the man to leave, having said it a third time.
