Ottawa mayoral candidate charged for alleged death threats against premier, incumbent | CBC News

Charges filed in Kingston, Ont., against Geoffrey Nicholas Griplas cite social media posts this month

WARNING: This story contains descriptions of violent language and imagery.

A candidate for mayor of Ottawa is facing multiple charges for allegedly making death threats against Ontario Premier Doug Ford and incumbent Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.

Geoffrey Nicholas Griplas was charged on Sept. 15 with two counts of criminal harassment, as well as two counts of uttering death threats allegedly made by social media posts between the dates of Sept. 6 and Sept. 13.

CBC News has obtained court documents that detail the charges and name the targets of the alleged offences as Ford and Sutcliffe, who is running for re-election as Ottawa mayor. 

The documents say the conduct took place in Kingston, Ont., and could reasonably be expected to cause the premier and mayor to believe their safety was threatened.

Griplas previously ran for Ottawa city council in 2018 for Ward 1, which covers part of the eastern community of Orléans. He received 65 votes, coming 16th of 17 candidates.

He has had earlier run-ins with the justice system that include multiple harassment charges.

He registered to run for Ottawa mayor on Aug. 21 of this year, the last day of nominations for the Oct. 26 election.

While the name posted on the public list of candidates is Geoff Nicholas, the candidate provided a full name including Griplas elsewhere on his nomination documents, which also include an address matching that on the charge sheet.

CBC News has viewed social media posts that remain on a Facebook page using the name Geoffrey Nicholas Griplas.

A post dated Sept. 6 shows a flyer for the Silver Lake campsite on fire with the words "kill Da Cliff" and another message partly obscured by the flames. It is captioned with the words "shame on you Mark!"