Nipawin Provincial Court. (File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Aaron Schulze

Petersen Not Guilty

Nipawin man found not guilty of threatening Trudeau

Sep 10, 2019 | 2:17 PM

A Nipawin man was acquitted of his charge of uttering threats toward Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Parliament.

Judge Hugh Harradence said in Nipawin Provincial Court on Tuesday, Sept. 10 he had reasonable doubt that David Petersen, 53, uttered the threats with intention. He was charged after RCMP said in a media release that threats of shooting Trudeau and blowing up the Parliament buildings were allegedly made over the phone to a Canadian government agency employee on Feb. 12.

Harradence said he found Paul Sveinson – the Crown’s first witness and a collection content officer for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) at the time – was sincere in trying to recollect his Feb. 12 conversation with Petersen. But Harradence said there is no evidence of the conversation being recorded or that he took notes of it immediately after it concluded.

“Importantly to me, Sveinson does not remember the exact words used during the entire context of this conversation,” Harradence said in court. “Context is critical.”

Harradence said he understood the general context of the call between Petersen and Sveinson was a CRA call to a distraught taxpayer. But he added there is a hole in the evidence of how Trudeau and the Parliament buildings came into conversation.

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Petersen argued the whole incident stemmed from a foolish conversation with someone he didn’t know, Harradence said Petersen later told Const. Tanner Gillies from the Saskatchewan National Security Enforcement Section that he doesn’t see himself as a threat to Trudeau and wouldn’t take a shot at him.

Under his observation in the courtroom, Harradence mentioned Petersen had a tendency to say foolish things. He cited how Petersen referenced his highest level of education as “Grade 2” when asked. Harradence said he doesn’t know if Petersen likes the “spotlight” or says these things when nervous or stressed.

After Harradence read his non guilty verdict, Petersen put his head in his arms and was surrounded by his friends and family. He said outside of court that he doesn’t know how to feel.

“I was scared as hell and I didn’t know what to expect,” Petersen said. “I wasn’t trying to guess ahead of anything, but I’m not surprised.”

Petersen, who elected to defend himself in the trial, originally intended to plead guilty to the charges in March to get them out of the way. However, Judge Inez Cardinal wouldn’t accept Petersen’s guilty plea after he said he didn’t believe he was guilty of the charges.

Petersen said it would have been easier to serve 12 months of probation than to go through the trial, but his wife Shanon said she and their kids and family wouldn’t allow him to do that.

“We said he didn’t do that, and he needs to stand innocent; speak for himself,” Shanon Petersen said outside of court. “I think [the trial] has been stressful for David and equally stressful for me, but I knew what was true and really felt that the truth would come out in the end, and the judge would know.”

Crown Prosecutor Lori O’Conner said the Crown believed there was enough evidence in the case.

“The Crown’s job is to assess whether we have a reasonable conviction based on the evidence we had before we started,” O’Conner said outside of court. “The judge assessed the evidence. He has a really hard job, so he considered everything that was before the court and his finding was that the Crown hadn’t proven the mental element or the intention behind the threat as required by law.”

With the trial concluded, Petersen joked that he will be “pretending to be a building inspector again.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow