In his final hearing Jan. 30 before being sentenced for three terrorism-related charges, Matthew Althorpe delivered a 20-minute “letter from the heart” to express respect for the judge’s decision, “whatever it may be.”
Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly allowed Althorpe to read his letter in full, following arguments from his lawyer, Robb MacDonald, in the quiet 361 University Ave. courtroom.
Althorpe pleaded guilty to facilitating terrorist activity, instructing others to carry out terrorist activity and committing an offence for a terrorist group in October, nearly two years after he was arrested in December 2023.
The 30-year-old father of a two-year-old from Niagara Region has been in custody since his arrest, but was allowed to sit at the counsel table yesterday, rather than in the prisoner’s box, at his lawyer's request. “Unless he’s done something really bad in his cell this morning,” Kelly joked in response to MacDonald.
Appearing gaunt yet polished in a fitted brown suit, Althorpe held a stack of papers as he approached the bench to read his letter.
“Terrorism is not a good thing,” Althorpe told the court. “I regret that all of this from the very start has brought nothing but suffering.”
But renouncing his extremist beliefs didn’t happen through “solely negative experiences,” he said. He spoke about his positive interactions with inmates and correctional staff since being incarcerated, like the Black nurse who noted his weight loss and “insisted” on looking after him.
Althorpe spoke of his potential to be a good person, his newfound Jehovah's Witnesses community, and his plans to engage in “low-risk hobbies” upon release.
He also looks forward to being a dad, he said.
Althorpe’s letter followed a two-hour legal argument from MacDonald, who requested a sentence of 12 to 14 years for his client.
MacDonald laid out his argument by dividing terrorism cases into two camps: those that involve specific plans and those involving only “ideologists.” The Crown’s submissions rely on legal precedents from the first category, he said.
But despite his client’s “absolutely wicked behaviour,” he told the court, Althorpe never picked a single target, which places his case in the latter camp.
MacDonald also emphasized the impact of trauma and mental health problems, including Althorpe's borderline personality disorder that went undiagnosed until last year.
He told the court how extremism became a “coping mechanism” for his client, referencing “profound findings” from a physician's report last year.
“Drawing on his surprising resources, Althorpe managed to extract himself from his psychiatric predicament … by finding peace and mental health paradoxically in extremist ideology and activities,” MacDonald read from the report.
“This is someone who has mischannelled all the fury and poison of his upbringing into the wrong path,” MacDonald concluded his argument. “Now he’s armed for his own self-improvement with this diagnosis.”
But Crown Prosecutor Amber Pashuk, who asked for a 20-year sentence, expressed skepticism about MacDonald's claims.
She questioned if the report goes so far as to suggest mental illness directly caused Althorpe’s behaviour, or if it is accurate to frame his diagnosis as a “turning point” in his extremism.
Pashuk also disputed a “neat division” between terrorist actors and ideologists.
“If anything, Althorpe represents a third category,” she told the court.
Kelly is scheduled to deliver her decision on March 27.
