Truth and Consequences

Patrik Mathews, (RCMP Manitoba/Reuters)

"I did not hear any particular apology to our country. to me, it's galling to think someone who's not an American would know better than us what kind of country we should have here and decide that you hate America so much you're going to infiltrate our country and tear it down."

"In the letter you submitted, you didn't necessarily inspire confidence that you've changed to the point that there's no longer a threat of violence from  you."

"Nevertheless, you have stated that all you want to do is go back to Canada and live a normal life. We all hope that is something that will happen once you serve this sentence."

"[...Conversations, text exchanges and planning represented more than merely] wishes and hopes and far-flung fantasies [of a pair of] wide-eyed neophytes."

"They were specific, serious and calculating in the actions they intended to perpetrate."

District Court Judge Theodore Chuang, Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.

Former Manitoba army reservist Patrik Mathews has been sentenced to nine years in prison for his involvement in what the FBI called a neo-Nazi plot to start a race war in the United States.CBC

Nine years in prison for former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Mathews, 28, for his role in a plot to exploit escalating U.S. social tensions in the hopes of triggering a "race war", in the assessment of the FBI. A resident of Beausejour in Manitoba, he excused himself for his ill judgement when "I got involved with the wrong people". As though the choice to connect himself with the white supremacist group The Base was an incidental error for which he was not seriously at fault. He had no idea, he claimed, of the depth and seriousness of their intended actions.

Judge Chuang, after reviewing all the evidence presented to him, and carefully reading through the letter submitted by Patrik Mathews exonerating himself and blaming a misunderstanding on his part, took due consideration of both the defence and the prosecution positions on the punishment to be meted out to the terror-by-accidental-affiliation chastened man who was, he claimed, innocent of any intent to carry out any acts of violence.

Apart from the sentence of 9 years in prison for his lapse in judgement, there is an additional penalty of three years of supervised release once his prison term is completed. And when justice has been served, he will be deported back to Canada. Both Matthews and his co-defenant, U.S. army veteran Brian Mark Lemley Jr., pleaded guilty to weapons charges associated with the plot to precipitate a clash between police and thousands of heavily armed gun control protesters, in Richmond, Virginia.. 

 

In August 2019, Brian Lemley and William Bilbrough attended a training camp for neo-Nazi group The Base. Lemley is standing second from left, holding a long gun in the air. Bilbrough is kneeling in the centre while holding a blade. (U.S. Attorney detention memo)

 

The defence had petitioned the court for location to a prison facility in Minnesota so their client would be located closer to his family in Manitoba.  Originally, he informed the court he believed The Base was committed to ideals that were less extreme, focusing on immigration controls. He characterized the work of The Base as "horrifically and disastrously wrong", though it might have been seen by him to be good, clean fun at the time.

 

He could have been given a sentence up to 25 years in prison, in reflection of the "terrorism enhancement" provision requested by the prosecution. On the other hand, the defense counsel argued a sentence of less than three years, for after all the defendants' plan ultimately was never carried out. Contrastingly, his crimes, prosecutors argued, were serious and his motives even more so.

 

During a search of the apartment Mathews shared with one of the co-accused, law enforcement agents found videos of Mathews saying violent, anti-Semitic and racist things. (U.S. Attorney detention memo)

 

Court had been presented with ample evidence of the plot unfolding, where the two spoke in terms of killing federal officials, derailing trains and poisoning water supplies; all part of a violent scheme to disrupt and exploit political and social tensions in the hopes of triggering a race war in the U.S. Another co-defendant, William Garfield Bilbrough IV, also pleaded guilty to assisting Mathews to enter the U.S. illegally, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.

The heavily incriminating evidence that came to light was gathered through FBI wiretaps, "sneak-and-peek" warrants, and the cooperation of undercover officers. As all too often happens in cases of this nature, Patrik Mathews' father described his son as a man with a good heart but a troubled soul, who had suffered as a child from being pushed around by schoolyard bullies, resulting in an attitude of social alienation.

Mounties found this handwritten list of mass shootings when they executed a search warrant at Mathews' Beausejour, Man., residence in August 2019. The list included the year, number of people dead and whether the shooter was on medication. (U.S. prosecution sentencing memorandum)