Canadian blogger guilty in Harper threat

Published: Dec. 9, 2008 at 8:58 PM
Order reprints
CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- A Canadian blogger escaped jail time for the death threat he issued against Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an online rant he says was a joke gone bad.

Alberta provincial court Judge Judith Shriar issued a written judgment Monday against Patrick David Fenton, 27, of Canmore, the Calgary Herald reported Tuesday. Fenton was given a suspended sentence, placed on one year's probation and ordered to complete 60 hours of community service.

It was Fenton's second go-around on the matter. He was acquitted at trial last year but that verdict was overturned on appeal by the prosecution.

Fenton found himself in legal hot water for his online blog entries two years ago, in which he wrote that the federal government was destroying Canada and he wanted to kill Harper "so slowly I want you to suffer terribly begging for your life."

He also expressed the same desire to do in Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe and Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. His posting was accompanied by a photograph of himself wearing ski goggles and holding a knife between his teeth.

Fenton testified his writings were "pretty much a giant joke," the Herald reported.

"I went extremely overboard," he had admitted to police.


© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.



U.S. trade deficit dropped in May (2 min)
Beckinsale awarded $32K in libel damages (24 min)
Crude oil prices drop Friday morning (39 min)
UPI NewsTrack TopNews (50 min)
Expensive F-22 having maintenance woes (53 min)
GM emerges from bankruptcy, sells assets (53 min)
Armenia, Azerbaijan urged to end dispute
fark
Ugly ass baby giraffe born at Jacksonville Zoo. It's got legs that won't quit
Darwin scores first victory in 15 years at annual Running of the Dipshiats in Pamplona
...so here's some ugly-ass hairless baby macaque monkeys that look like George W. Bush
You should never have to apologize for being right. Even when you're the editor of the Farmers'...
Most unmarried U.S. couples who live together aren't trying to test their relationship -- they just...
Behold the 10 ugliest plants in the world. Audrey II strangely absent