Ottawa man charged with arson in apartment fire during Freedom Convoy protests

An Ottawa man has been charged in connection to the alleged arson that took place in a downtown apartment building in early February in the heat of the anti-mandate protest.

Police said that on February 6, they were called to a residence on Lisgar Street between Metcalf and O’Connor after a man was seen deliberately setting fire in an apartment building.

Police say 21-year-old Connor Russell McDonald has been charged with arson causing property damage and disregard for human life, mischief to property endangering life, mischief to property, and possession of incendiary material.

They say there is no information to suggest McDonald was involved with the convoy protest. He’s scheduled to appear in court on April 1.

Resident Matias Munoz said last month that the morning after the incident, he saw the carpet of the building’s lobby was charred, and blackened fire-starter bricks were strewn across the room.

He said the building manager showed him surveillance video, which appeared to show two men light a package of the bricks in the lobby and securing the front door handles together before leaving through the side door around 5 a.m. on February 6.

The building manager showed surveillance video, which he said appears to show two men lighting a package of the bricks in the lobby and securing the front door handles together before leaving through the side door. Photo courtesy: Ottawa Police

Second suspect still at large, police say

A second man is still wanted by police, the service said in a press release Monday.

The video also showed a different man enter the building and put the fire out a short while later, Munoz said in an interview at the time.

No one was injured, but there are more than 100 units in the building and residents said they were left frightened about what might have happened.

The fire was started after what residents of the building, which is just seven blocks south of Parliament Hill, described as a particularly difficult night during the protest that caused major disruptions in Ottawa and ended up lasting three weeks.

Several residents in the building reported some kind of confrontation between the tenants and the demonstrators in the early morning hours. Some described people yelling down at the protesters from their windows.

Politicians and police officials have acknowledged that the protest led to a sense of lawlessness in downtown Ottawa at the time, as officers were diverted to Parliament Hill and bylaws went unenforced elsewhere in the core.