After Wayne McGuire was caught with homemade explosives, firearms and body armour, he turned his life around: getting sober, completing rehab, securing employment and immersing himself within the treatment community, his lawyer told a Calgary judge on Friday.

She asked that her client be allowed to serve his sentence in the community.

Earlier this year, McGuire pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including possession of explosives, possession of body armour and assault with a weapon stemming from incidents in 2022.

Court heard that on Feb. 15, 2022, McGuire was arrested after standing in the middle of Deerfoot Trail in the path of a bus while holding a firearm. After his arrest, police searched McGuire’s home and seized a number of weapons and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

At the time, McGuire was in a paranoid state, fuelled by the pandemic and his drug use, according to defence lawyer Andrea Urquhart.

‘A completely different person now’

After McGuire was released on bail, he attended and graduated from a residential treatment program, and the judge heard he has been clean and sober ever since.

He got a job as an executive chef, overseeing the kitchens at three residential treatment facilities.

McGuire, according to Urquhart, is now “immersed in the treatment community,” even sponsoring others who are in recovery.

“I’m doing the best I’ve ever done,” said McGuire when given the chance to address the court at Friday’s sentencing hearing.

“I’m a completely different person now.”

Father killed by drunk driver

The tragic circumstances of McGuire’s childhood were also outlined by the defence.

Court heard that at the age of 11, McGuire’s father was killed by a drunk driver. His mother was catastrophically injured in the crash and tried to kill herself after becoming paraplegic.

McGuire was sent to live with an abusive family member.

“That kind of trauma sticks,” said Urquhart.

Then, in 2015, McGuire’s partner, who was pregnant with their child, was killed in a car accident.

Risk to public ‘immense’

But prosecutor James Thomas argued that making the IEDs and obtaining the other weapons were choices made by McGuire.

The offender’s mental health and background “don’t excuse or explain those choices” and are “not a justification for these offences,” said Thomas.

Thomas asked the judge to consider a 3½-year prison sentence, arguing “the risk to other members of the public and the public at large was immense.”

He pointed out the 54-year-old has a history of convictions for crimes of violence and refusing to abide by court orders.

‘The exact right kind of sentence’

The prosecutor also argued that a conditional sentence order would send the “wrong message to the community.”

But Urquhart disagreed.

“I think members of the community, knowing all the circumstances, would arrive at the conclusion that a conditional sentence order is the exact right kind of sentence in these circumstances,” she said.

Removing McGuire from the community he’s built and sending him to jail where he’d be surrounded by those “engaged in intense criminal lifestyles … that’s the type of disruption that would put the community more at risk,” said Urquhart.

Justice Margaret Keelaghan will make her decision later this fall.