Jason Claude Lamarche was motivated by hatred for the francophone community when he sent two threatening emails to Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stephanie Plante in June 2024, an Ottawa judge ruled on Thursday.
Ontario Court Justice Timothy Lipson sentenced Lamarche, 49, to four months in jail and an additional three years of probation after finding him guilty of criminal harassment and uttering death threats to Plante.
Plante, who was re-elected to serve a second council term earlier this week, attended the Oct. 29 hearing and read a victim-impact statement into the record, describing the fear she and her family felt after being targeted by the threats.
She said she considered quitting her job as a councillor after receiving the threats and contemplated whether she would run for a second term.
“My elected position does not make a death threat part of the job,” Plante said in court, and she also said too many female politicians were victimized by threats and harassment.
Outside the court and following the hearing, Plante thanked the judge for recognizing those facts.
“It’s been a two-year process since I initially got those emails,” she said. “It was a year ago that I took the stand, and I was questioned by both the Crown and the (defence). I have been consistent the whole time. I was glad to be believed by the judge.
“I think it sends a very strong message that this is not acceptable. It’s not acceptable against anyone, much less people in public office,” she said. “We are seeing more and more women who are deciding not to run … and we don’t want anyone to feel intimidated. We don’t want anyone to feel like this is not a job that they could handle because these (threats) are taken with leniency.
“I think the judge was really clear about that, and I’m glad that he mentioned very specifically women in politics and the need for the democratic discourse to continue on and for these kinds of things to be taken seriously.”
Plante said she was “relieved” to find a measure of closure after two police officers led Lamarche out of the courtroom to begin serving his sentence.
“This was two years of my life that this took out,” she said. “This was two years that it took from constituent matters and from really pressing matters. I have a ward that requires a lot of my attention. This is not a a job where you can just put your feet up. There’s a lot of homelessness, there’s opioids, there’s overdoses. Those things require someone who can give her 100 per cent. And so I’m glad for now that this is over and I can go back to doing what I was elected to do, and I was re-elected on Monday to do. So I look forward to tackling those things and not having this lingering.”
Lamarche was charged after sending two emails to Plante from his Gmail account: the first warning Plante that her “days are numbered” and that she should consider her “immediate safety” in Ottawa.
Plante sent a brief reply the next morning to correct the spelling of her surname, which was intentionally misspelled as “Plant.”
Lamarche sent a reply about an hour later containing rhetoric that “escalated sharply,” the judge said, in its tone and content.
Lipson said the two emails were “serious and disturbing” in their content and in the consequences for Plante and her feeling of safety.
In the second email, Lamarche’s “political criticism gave way to overt threats,” Lipson said.
“They were explicit and conveyed threats of lethal violence intended to instill fear,” the judge ruled.
The second email referred to a “death sentence” and Lamarche boasted that he would send a “private militia” after Plante. It contained phrases like “wanted dead or alive” and “shoot to kill.”
The emails were also sent to Lamarche’s numerous political and media contacts, which only “amplified” the threats and became an aggravating factor in the judge’s decision.
“A private threat became a public act of intimidation,” the judge ruled.
Plante, in her victim-impact statement, pointed out the irony of Lamarche having a French surname — he was born and raised in Ottawa to an anglophone mother and francophone father.
He moved to Vancouver in his 20s and remained there for 20 years, where he worked in banking and once ran for mayor of that city. He moved back to Ottawa in 2018 and has been living at the Ottawa Mission for more than two years.
In a statement to the court on Monday, Lamarche railed against the fact that most job requirements in the capital region required proficiency in French.
He blamed his inability to speak French for not being able to find “meaningful employment, apart from working part-time at a grocery store.”
He denied, however, that he harboured any hatred for French-speakers and said his father and half his family were francophones from Quebec.
“I would never do anything to attack or harm the French community,” he told the judge. “I have francophone blood.”
Lipson also pointed out the irony of Lamarche’s background in politics, including that he studied political science, participated in campaigns and ran for office himself.
The judge said the fact the threats were directed to a sitting politician was also an aggravating factor in his decision and said threats to politicians were indicative of a “broader societal harm” that may discourage people from running for public office.
“Mr. Lamarche himself is very familiar with democratic institutions,” Lipson said. “Of all people, Mr. Lamarche should appreciate how precious and fragile our democratic institutions are.”
The judge also ordered Lamarche not to communicate in any way with Plante and to stay 250 metres away from where she lived, worked, or any place where her role as councillor may take her. He must submit a DNA sample to a national databank and was banned from possessing weapons for 10 years. He was also ordered to participate in any assessment or counselling, including anger management and psychiatric consultation that is required in his rehabilitation.
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