More Sabotage Targets Guelph 'Development'; Terror Charges Suggested

E-mail claiming responsibility for sabotage of machinery could have come from any number of public computers

GUELPH (Jul 5, 2006)

With thousands of people having access to University of Guelph computers, campus officials say it's difficult to pinpoint who might be sending e-mails claiming responsibility for alleged acts of sabotage and arson.

This week, the Guelph Mercury was sent a message from a group calling itself the Anarchist Fire Brigade. The sender claimed "unknown individuals" had sabotaged three pieces of machinery at the offices of a south-end housing developer more than a week ago by placing dirt in the fuel tanks.

But Fusion Homes' Julie Weber said the company wasn't aware of any damage to its equipment. She declined to comment further yesterday.

For the third time this year, the e-mail was traced to an Internet protocol address operated by the university. Previous e-mails traced to university computers claimed responsibility for a January fire at a home under construction on Dawn Avenue and for sabotaging machinery at the Memorial Gardens demolition site in April.

In the Memorial Gardens incident, sand was poured into the gas tanks of two machines belonging to Toronto-based Murray Demolition. A group calling itself Anarchist Solidarity claimed responsibility and said it was done in protest over an alleged sexual assault by a Guelph Police officer.

The most recent e-mail includes the statement: "There is no excuse for suburbs. Development must stop." A poem that follows ends with "There's nothing quite so lovely/ As a development on fire."

Guelph Police Sergeant Dave Elloway said the force was looking into the group's claim.

"What concerns me is that we've got a group here that appears to be escalating things," he said yesterday.

Lori Bona Hunt, a spokesperson for the U of G, said it was news to the university the most recent e-mail had originated from one of its computers. The message was also sent to the campus newspaper and the student radio station, but not the university.

She said there's no shortage of people with access to the university's computers.

"There are thousands of users on campus. There are public computers in the library where anyone can go in and send an e-mail anywhere in the world," she said.

Bona Hunt said campus police were co-operating with city police in an ongoing investigation into the previous incidents.

Last week, an e-mail claiming to be from the radical environmental movement Earth Liberation Front took responsibility for a suspicious fire that razed a home under construction on Summit Ridge, in the east end.

The fire caused about $200,000 in damage, according to the fire department.

The Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, has been linked to four fires in Guelph in the last year.