No special security measures will be taken by the university in response to Friday’s bomb scare.
“It’s an isolated incident,” said Darren Dumoulin, security operations manager of the downtown campus. “It’s not something that happens everyday.”
A package that looked like an artillery shell was found in front of the Hall Building last Friday around 4 p.m. Police were called to the scene and a military expert was brought in to examine the package. He determined that it was just a bomb shell casing and contained no dangerous material.
Police had blocked off de Maisonneuve Blvd., between Guy St. and Crescent St., causing traffic in the area.
The Hall Building and the Library Building were evacuated and the school remained closed until the following morning.
Art education student Anastasia Voutou was in the Hall Building working on an assignment around 5 p.m. when she was asked to leave. If the motivation behind the dummy bomb was to scare students, Voutou says it failed. “People seemed a lot more annoyed than worried,” she said.
Along with the dummy package were found two Canadian flags. One of them had writing on it about the Mtis Nation protesting against the federal Liberal government. The other flag had a substance with the consistency of human vomit. A note was also found.
So far, no suspects have been arrested in relation to the bomb scare. Dumoulin said, although the package was in no way dangerous, the threat consists of a criminal act. Any suspect identified will be charged with public mischief.
