Litton Industries bombing
In October, 1982, three members of an anarchist urban guerrilla group known as Direct Action acted upon "their wish to end the arms race"[1] and filled a stolen pick-up truck with 550 kg (1,210 lb) of dynamite and drove from Vancouver to Toronto, Canada planting the bomb outside Litton Industries, a manufacturer of American cruise missile components many feared would increase the risk of nuclear war.
[3] Litton Industries was conceived as a radio-engineering firm in 1934, but was purchased by Charles Bates Thornton, a Pentagon official with "all the right connections in the government and military", in 1956.
[4] Litton was transformed into a military producer, building entire naval ships in their own shipyards, and installing their own equipment, including communications and navigation systems.
[4] Described as "the best known economic link between Canada and the nuclear arms race",[5] Litton Industries' Rexdale plant was announced in October 1978 as one of two locations in the world that would be responsible for the manufacture of Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) guidance systems of the American Tomahawk cruise missile.
...I felt that it was necessary to begin the development of a resistance movement that could carry out sabotage and expropriations... On the night of July 27, 1982, a British Columbia Department of Highways explosives storehouse north of Squamish was entered, and 38½ cases of dynamite were stolen.
This indicates that ten crates of dynamite were not stored in the wooden structures, to which Direct Action members Brent Taylor and Ann Hansen held keys.
[12] On the morning of October 14, just hours before the bombing, the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that five Litton executives from the plant could not be called to testify by the defence counsel of 22 anti-nuclear activists who had been arrested for trespassing one year earlier.
[13][14] The bombing was carried out on October 14, 1982, using a van that was parked in a location partially concealed by shrubs, with a fluorescent "warning box" duct taped to the hood, displaying a message, a digital clock counting down, and a single stick of dynamite.
She also told the guards to evacuate the plant, phone the local hotels to warn guests to stay away from windows to avoid injury and to have police close down passing roadways so that only the Litton Industries building would be damaged.
[15] The explosion injured three members of the police, three passing motorists and five Litton employees, blowing out a 50-foot section of wall on the main two-story plant,[16][17] and damaging two adjacent buildings.
[26] A communique by the CCC claimed the attack for similar reasons to Direct Action, describing Litton as 'the designer, manufacturer and producer of the Cruise missile guidance system whose installation preparations are well underway on the site of the Florennes military base".
[28] The telephones of CMPC members, including Ken Hancock, were wiretapped for "some considerable time" according to Roy McMurtry, the Attorney General of Ontario.
[28] Gerry Hannah and Doug Stewart, although sentenced to six and ten years respectively for other Direct Action activities, were not convicted of playing any role in the Litton bombing.
[31] The judge ruled that Hansen's life sentence was merited because "her only remorse or regret is for the injury she caused the ten Litton Systems victims" and that she did not apologise for any of the group's property damage.
