The RCMP ruled out terrorism as the motive for a bomb threat at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport last Friday, and they are defending their decision to detain more than 200 passengers for five hours while they searched a plane.
Police arrested Félix Brault, 19, at his home in Saint-Bruno, on the South Shore, Tuesday night. They have charged him with two counts of mischief, three counts of public mischief and two counts of uttering a false alarm.
At his arraignment in the Longueuil courthouse on Wednesday, he was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and is to return to court Aug. 11 for a bail hearing.
RCMP Cpl. Sylvain l'Heureux said police now believe the man acted on his own, and he didn't have a criminal record.
"No terrorism angle at all," he said. "It's just the angle of one individual acting on his own. The other person that we did [interview] has no part in the event, except that he chatted with that person [Brault].
Police said they tracked down Brault on the internet where, they said, he boasted about the threat in a chat room.
After the bomb threat was received, police grounded and searched a Boeing 767 jet that was bound for London. More than 200 passengers were on board when police ordered the pilot to stay on the tarmac. In the end, passengers were delayed overnight.
L'Heureux said he's sorry people were inconvenienced. But, he said, police did not want to take any chances.
"Well, you know, it's police procedures. And, at that time, the investigators on the site, with the elements they had in hand, the most secure thing was to keep the passengers on the plane," he said.
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