Ontario: "ELFs are mad"

November 02 2006
Vandals claiming affiliation with a radical environmental activist group left banners threatening arson at Mayor Kate Quarrie's campaign office this week.

Campaign volunteers arrived yesterday morning to find three spray-painted sheets hanging outside the Elizabeth Street office.

'They won't intimidate me'

Mayor's campaign office targeted by vandals claiming link to radical environmentalists

SCOTT TRACEY

GUELPH (Nov 2, 2006)

Vandals claiming affiliation with a radical environmental activist group left banners threatening arson at Mayor Kate Quarrie's campaign office this week.

Campaign volunteers arrived yesterday morning to find three spray-painted sheets hanging outside the Elizabeth Street office.

"If she builds it, we will burn it," one said. The other sheets bore similar assertions.

Two of the sheets had the initials ELF -- an apparent reference to the U.S.-based Earth Liberation Front -- painted at the bottom. The third contained a "build and burn" comment, along with "ELFs are mad," said Guelph Police Constable Andrew Goody.

A press release issued by Quarrie's campaign team yesterday afternoon noted the comments on the sheets, but did not include any reference to ELF.

"I am appalled by this threat of violence which appears to be the work of those who oppose my policies of economic development and job creation," Quarrie said in the release, pledging she "will not be deterred by these brazen tactics of intimidation."

After last night's mayoral debate at Guelph Place, Quarrie said she was "disgusted" by the vandalism.

"It won't intimidate me," she said.

"I'm the mayor and they won't intimidate me."

Quarrie said she did not know what the messages were a reference to, suggesting they were a rail against development in general.

"It's ELF," the mayor said, "that's what they do -- burn things."

The painted sheets were turned over to Guelph Police.

Staff-Sergeant Harry Oldengarm said besides the use of the initials ELF there was no immediate link between yesterday's vandalism and a series of fires in Guelph during the past 18 months that were also claimed by parties purporting to represent Earth Liberation Front.

"It's hard for me to even comment on that," Oldengarm said. "Who knows whether there's a subtle message there for Kate Quarrie?"

Guelph residents were introduced to ELF in June 2005 following nearly simultaneous fires at the Stone Road Zellers store, which was then under construction, and the downtown Church of Our Lady. The two fires caused more than $25,000 in damage.

At the Zellers, "ELF" was spray-painted on the building along with the slogan, "No more development."

Four months later, the pro shop at the Cutten Club was destroyed in a fire and "ELF" was spray-painted on a nearby walkway.

During the first seven months of 2006 there were three fires set at homes under construction, causing more than $300,000 in damages. In each case, media outlets got e-mails after the blazes from parties claiming to be ELF members and taking responsibility for the fires.

One e-mail sent to the Mercury after a June fire at a new home on Summit Ridge included the line, "if you build it we will burn ti (sic)" and was signed "elf."

The Earth Liberation Front, which claims no leader and no official membership, is a U.S.-based environmental extremist group. It showed up in the mid-1990s, claiming to represent "the burning rage of a dying planet."

Since then, the FBI alleges ELF-related fires have caused more than $100-million in damage across the U.S.

The most significant fire in dollar value took place on Aug. 1, 2003, when a deliberately-set blaze levelled a nearly-completed 206-unit apartment complex near San Diego, causing more than US$25-million in damage.

A 12-foot banner found at that scene read, "If you build it, we will burn it" and bore the initials ELF.

Yesterday, Staff-Sgt. Oldengarm said it is difficult to know how much weight to put in the threat left at Quarrie's office "but I don't suppose we should ever underestimate these people."

stracey@guelphmercury.com