GORE BAY—This past Monday, October 20, the man charged with seven counts of arson in five suspicious fires in Little Current over the summer appeared in the Ontario Court of Justice in Gore Bay.
The last court appearance of Clinton Gordon Haggart of Little Current, aged 30, had been set over from September 29 to October 20 to set a date for a two- to three-day trial.
Mr. Haggart was arrested, charged and detained in connection with a series of suspicious fires in Little Current homes and businesses within a three-month period this summer, and appeared in court in Gore Bay for the first time on August 14 via video conference from the detention centre where he is being held.
In his appearance last Monday, the latest in a series of court dates in the case, Mr. Haggart, who is of medium height and thin, occasionally glanced restlessly about the courtroom as he stood in the prisoner box in an orange prison jumpsuit; he remains in custody in district jail in Sudbury.
The court heard that Mr. Haggart has retained new legal counsel to represent him, Mr. Glenn Sandberg, a principal in the law firm Sandberg, Williams in Sudbury. Her Worship Judge L.A. Toulouse agreed to set over the date for a week, to Monday, October 27, in order to confirm a trial date.
The following charges against Mr. Haggart have been read before the court: intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to personal property owned by Clinton Haggart, 25 Wilson Street East, Northeast Town, Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, under Section 434.1 of the Criminal Code on June 13, 2014, and intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to a dwelling house, property of Ontario Aboriginal Services, 25 Wilson Street East (the home of the Haggart family); intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to a dwelling owned by Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, 35 Blake Street West (the home of Mr. Haggart’s mother-in-law, Margaret Bowerman); intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to a garage, property of Lorne Alston, on July 23 at 15 Blake Street West; intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to a shed, property of Jamie Still, on August 5, 26 Blake Street West; intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to a dwelling/recreation centre, property of Michael Maciuk, on August 17, 21 Campbell Street West (the Island Training Centre); and intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to a storage facility, property of Floyd James Renton, on August 17, 23 Campbell Street West (the former Little Current curling rink).
