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Updated: Youth charged with threatening students considered school shooting, witnesses testify

A 13-year-old accused of threatening students at a Yellowknife school said he’d considered carrying out a school shooting, a counsellor testified Friday.

The defendant, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arrested and charged on March 19 following a “potential threat” that occurred at a city school four days earlier.

He was charged with uttering threats, which he pleaded not guilty to.

A counselor at the school took the stand Friday to recount the events of March 15. She told the court she’d been meeting with the defendant on a regular basis to talk about everyday life, when a discussion took a turn that left her “shocked and taken aback.”

The counselor said the youth, who’d been jumpy and avoiding eye contact, became engaged and interested when the topic of firearms came up.

The youth, she testified, asked her if she’d shot a gun before, and began to list what she believed were types of firearms. She said she told him she was “amazed” by his knowledge of guns.

The youth, who told the counselor he’d often use the Internet at night due to difficulty sleeping, was asked what he did online.

The counselor testified he told her he researched school shootings, and that he asked her if one had ever happened in Canada.

Concerned with where the conversation was going, the counsellor said she asked the youth if he’d ever considered carrying out a school shooting. She told the court he replied “yes” without hesitating, and reaffirmed his answer a second time after the question was repeated.

When asked what was stopping the youth from committing a shooting, she said the youth replied, “resources.”

The counsellor said she then asked the accused what he would do if he did have access to gun, and that he told her he’d “play with it, take it apart and put it back together.”

When asked who he’d use the weapon on at his school, the counselor testified the accused identified two students who had “disrespected him.”

The witness told the court the youth never outlined a direct plan to carry out an attack and said he told her part of him didn’t want to and that he could stop himself.

The counsellor alerted the school’s principal, who arranged an emergency meeting with the youth’s mother. Questioned further about his earlier comments, the counsellor testified he listed another four students as people he’d thought of potentially harming.

The school’s principal informed the youth police would have to be notified – a statement that didn’t seem to concern the accused, the counsellor testified.

The youth was detained by RCMP the next day, who took him to Stanton Territorial Hospital on the strength of the Mental Health Act. Some of the boy's electronics were seized when he was arrested days later. The 13-year-old was taken out of school and placed on house arrest.

In cross-examining the witness, the youth’s lawyer, Peter Harte, suggested the list of guns he’d named in his meeting with the counsellor were references to video games, and that the term “resources,” was another nod to a phrase commonly used in games involving weapons.

Harte pressed the witness on whether or not she had prodded the youth into speaking about carrying out a shooting. The counsellor said she wasn’t going to let the school shooting comment go without pursuing it further and that she was simply concerned for the youth’s mental health.

After the counselor’s recollection of events was supported by another counselor who was in the room with the youth when the comments were made, the school’s principal took the stand Friday.

The principal testified the youth has sent back to class following the emergency meeting with his mother.

Making his closing submissions Friday, Harte argued the Crown was asking the court to “convict someone for how they felt, not what they wanted to do.”

“Canada is not yet a place where we have thought police,” said Harte. “To convict someone for being honest with a counselor is extremely problematic,” he said, submitting the youth’s comments did not constitute a direct threat.

Following a court appearance Monday, the boy was released from house arrest but is now subject to a curfew. He's still barred from contacting the six students, and from returning to school.

Judge Christine Gagnon will make her decision on July 23.