{"id":23240,"date":"2025-03-13T16:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=815516"},"modified":"2025-03-13T16:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:37:11","slug":"canadian-man-sentenced-for-shootings-that-damaged-pipeline-and-power-station-in-dakotas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2025\/03\/13\/canadian-man-sentenced-for-shootings-that-damaged-pipeline-and-power-station-in-dakotas\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Man Sentenced for Shootings That Damaged Pipeline and Power Station in Dakotas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2025\/03\/13\/815516.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2025\/03\/13\/815516.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>A Canadian man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for shootings at an oil pipeline in South Dakota and an electrical substation in North Dakota that caused $1.7 million in damages after a judge found that his crimes met the definition of terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Cameron Smith, 50, was also ordered Monday to pay more than $2.1 million in restitution, <a href=\"https:\/\/bismarcktribune.com\/news\/local\/crime-courts\/article_dc09cc58-fde2-11ef-86f7-17243c7a7e16.html#tracking-source=home-top-story\">the Bismarck Tribune<\/a> reported, as well as fines totaling $250,000. He faces deportation after his release.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>Smith, who is originally from the Toronto area but had been living in Astoria, Oregon, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/electrical-substation-shootings-north-dakota-south-dakota-7c740c93deb85a6d351f111911ad2e6a\">pleaded guilty last Septembe<\/a>r to charges of destroying energy facilities for the incidents near Carpenter, South Dakota, in 2022 and in 2023 near Ray, North Dakota.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor sentenced Smith to two consecutive 12 \u00bd-year terms, far above federal sentencing guidelines that recommended 3 \u00bd to 4 \u00bc years per count.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor David Hagler said the higher sentence was justified because Smith\u2019s actions met the definition of terrorism by \u201cattempting to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorney Douglas Passon argued against the longer sentence, describing Smith as a \u201chyper-aware individual wanting to create awareness about climate change\u201d who intentionally avoided harming anyone.<\/p>\n<p>In the South Dakota incident, prosecutors said the damage inflicted by Smith caused a shutdown of a pump station on the Keystone XL Pipeline, which led to a leak that damaged neighboring land. Damages to transformers and other infrastructure at a North Dakota power substation caused outages to 243 customers.<\/p>\n<p>Smith told the court his actions were driven by frustration after years of trying to raise awareness of climate change through lawful means. He said he chose remote locations to avoid harming people, and he argued for a lesser sentence, citing his autism and Crohn\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis is tantamount to a life sentence, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s right,\u201d Smith said. He expressed doubt he would receive adequate medical care while incarcerated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI won\u2019t survive this,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Traynor was not swayed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou ignored the rule of law in the United States and carried out your actions in a terrorist manner,\u201d Traynor said. \u201cYou did not engage in this conduct on a whim. You committed two separate attacks on critical infrastructure 10 months apart and traveled a great distance to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Passon told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they will appeal. He said the sentence was unjust given Smith\u2019s medical and mental conditions and disproportionate compared with similar crimes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"copyright-notice lite\">Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/div>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/canada\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Canada<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"815516\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-yes\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! <span class=\"percent\"><\/span>% of people found this article valuable. Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>The most important insurance news,in your inbox every business day.<\/h4>\n<p>Get the insurance industry&#8217;s trusted newsletter<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments A Canadian man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for shootings at an oil pipeline in South Dakota and an electrical substation in North Dakota that caused $1.7&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[10,1357,13,1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/canadian-man-sentenced-for-shootings-that-damaged-pipeline-and-power-station-in-dakotas.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}