About Guy Fawkes

The Guy Fawkes mascot has been used by Canadian police and military explosives technicians for over two decades.

Almost 400 years ago, Guy Fawkes was implicated in a plot to destroy much of central London using gun powder.

The plan devised by Guy Fawkes and 12 fellow conspirators to destroy the British parliament building was foiled on the eve of the attempt to rid England of King James I and turn the country back to its Roman Catholic past.

A study by the Centre for Explosion Studies at the University of Wales, reported in the Times of London, indicated that the 2,500 kilograms of gunpowder packed into barrels and hidden in the cellar of the House of Lords was sufficient to destroy parliament 25 times over.

The report said that not only parliament, but Westminster Abbey and buildings in the surrounding streets would have been totally destroyed, while serious damage would have resulted in a radius of at least 500 metres.