YouTube video shown as arsonist’s trial begins

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This article was published 24/05/2012 (5129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOISSEVAIN — A controlled burn crusader and convicted arsonist — described by a Crown attorney as having a “dangerous obsession” — is on trial for allegedly breaching his probation by setting a fire.

Philip Andrew Unrau, 58, is accused of breaching his probation order by setting a small fire amongst brush north of Margaret.

At his trial, which began Wednesday, court viewed a YouTube video (embedded above) in which Unrau encourages viewers to control burn and lists the items needed to start a fire, including an axe.

“You need an axe to keep the anti fire people away,” Unrau says as he clutches an axe. “They can go have a swim in a cold lake and lighten up.”

Unrau’s trial began with the testimony of a witness who said he saw Unrau near a small fire as it burned on an abandoned bridge on March 23.

The witness said he was driving by the bridge when he saw Unrau walking away from the blaze which was the size of a camp fire. He testified that, as he slowed to a brief stop, Unrau turned around and walked back toward the fire.

The witness said he has known Unrau his whole life and recognized the accused’s motorcycle parked nearby.

He said he didn’t see anyone else in the area and the nearest home is about a quarter of a mile away.

After spotting the fire, he briefly stopped to place a call to alert his employer, a minister at a nearby Hutterite colony.

“I was worried it might get out of control,” the witness said.

An investigating RCMP officer also testified that, during Unrau’s subsequent arrest, he told police: “Well, it’s not like it was a house on fire.”

It was that officer who found the YouTube video which Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup played for Judge John Combs. In the video — dated January 2012 and posted under the username “rainofphillfire” — Unrau tells “all good Canadians” to start controlled burns in the spring.

“Start burning or God will, as Slave Lake got some judgment,” Unrau says.

That’s a reference to a wildfire that swept into Slave Lake, Alta. in May 2011 and forced the evacuation of 7,000 residents and burned 400 structures, mostly homes.

However, the YouTube video, and Unrau’s previous convictions for fire-related offences, are subject to a voir dire to determine their admissability at trial.

Unrau was fined $240 under the Wildfires Act in November 2003, and fined $240 again under the same act in February 2004.

In October 2009, he was sentenced to six months in jail on two counts of arson and two counts under the Wildfires Act for fires he set in Margaret in April 2008.

In one case, he set fire to grass, sticks and leaves and the flames crept to within six metres of Margaret’s wood-framed arena.

He was also convicted of uttering threats and breach of undertaking for threatening to burn down the Boissevain School.

As part of that October 2009 sentence, he was placed on three years probation, and it’s that order that he’s now accused of breaching.

Unrau’s trial began Wednesday, but was adjourned to allow the Crown to secure a key piece of evidence, which Lonstrup acknowledged his office had failed to secure by mistake.

Meanwhile, Unrau, who has been denied bail, remains in custody pending his next court date on Monday.

During the bail hearing in April, Lonstrup said the accused has a “dangerous obsession” with fire. Fawcett, however, said Unrau sees controlled burning as a conservationist movement intended to protect the environment.

Unrau told court that he’s being framed by Hutterites and Freemasons.

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