Armed Manitoba reservist on Rideau grounds 13 minutes before Mounties found him

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This article was published 02/07/2020 (1540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Manitoba reservist who allegedly plowed his truck into the gate of Rideau Hall, one of Ottawa’s most secure sites, and walked around the grounds with a rifle has been charged with multiple offences, but none related to terrorism.

Corey Barclay Hurren, 46, has been charged with 21 weapons offences and one count of uttering threats.

RCMP say he broke through a gate into the grounds of Rideau Hall, whose buildings house both Gov. Gen. Julie Payette and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and their families.

Hurren’s social media accounts include posts about COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The RCMP national security team is leading the investigation.

“He wasn’t in our database; he wasn’t known to us,” RCMP deputy commissioner Mike Duheme said at a news conference Friday. “From what we have right now, he was acting alone.”

Duheme also disclosed it took the Mounties 13 minutes to find the suspect.

Hurren runs a meat company in Bowsman, 385 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, and is part of the Canadian Rangers contingent in nearby Swan River.

On Friday, the military said Hurren enrolled as a reservist in April 1997 in Regina, and was released in October 2000. Last year, he enlisted with the Rangers, reservists who patrol remote regions.

The Canadian Armed Forces said Hurren was receiving full-time pay as part of Operation Laser, which retains and deploys reservists as needed in response to COVID-19 outbreaks, such as in long-term care homes.

However, Hurren had not been deployed for that task, and did not have permission to leave Manitoba.

The military believes none of the guns Hurren allegedly held during “this shocking incident” is military property.

“There were no issues that precluded his re-enrollment in the CAF or employment on (contract) service,” a spokesman wrote in an email to the Free Press.

Hurren is accused of bashing his black Dodge Ram through a closed metal gate, which forced the truck to stop.

Tourism staff noticed the abandoned truck, which had Manitoba licence plates, around 6:30 a.m. They told on-site security, who reported seeing a man walking on the pedestrian path carrying a long gun.

“Once it was reported to us, we took action and acted swiftly,” Duheme said.

Security footage showed the male suspect hiding in a rose garden, but it wasn’t until 6:43 a.m. that Mounties found him in the greenhouse, which is connected to Payette’s residence.

The Mounties negotiated with the suspect until roughly 8:30 a.m., when they took him into custody.

Duheme said the man was “very co-operative” despite holding a rifle. He said his police colleagues intentionally acted slowly, so as not to escalate the situation.

Mounties said Hurren revealed his motive but they wouldn’t share it. 

They wouldn’t say whether he’d written a manifesto. 

Those details are part of the investigation.

On Friday afternoon, Hurren took part in a minutes-long court hearing by phone, saying his full name and birthdate before his lawyer asked for a July 17 appearance, in order to receive the evidence against his client.

Hurren’s business, GrindHouse Fine Foods, posted a meme on its Facebook page moments before the incident in Ottawa. It refers to “Event 201,” and implies a connection between an earlier pandemic-risk assessment and a conspiracy theory COVID-19 was co-ordinated by global elites.

An Instagram post from three months ago talks about the Q-anon conspiracy, which contends an American “deep state” controls society.

Duheme said Mounties would speak with Rideau Hall staff and the National Capital Commission, which oversees the property, about whether Ottawa needs to beef up security at public sites.

 dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca