The Crown has recommended a nine-month sentence for Van Huigenbos and six months for Janzen because he played a lesser leadership role in the blockade.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.WATCH ABOVE : A sentencing hearing began on Thursday for two men charged in the 2022 Coutts border blockade.Two men who became the faces of a COVID-19 protest blockade at a key border crossing between Alberta and the United States nearly three years ago will learn their fates Friday.
Gerhard Janzen and Marco Van Huigenbos, along with a third man, Alex Van Herk, were found guilty last year of mischief over $5,000 for their actions at the protest over COVID-19 measures and vaccine mandates.The sentencing hearing went ahead for Van Huigenbos and Janzen Thursday. Lawyer Michael Johnston told court that Van Herk had fired him. He requested a 30-day delay.For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
Janzen addressed the court at the end of the day, offering an apology for the residents of Milk River and Coutts and for the stress the blockade caused. He said the intention was to cause change through peaceful means and not by breaking laws.Russian-Montrealer sentenced in U.S. for illegal electronics exports to help Putin’s warWoman’s death at Mahone Bay, N.S. home was intimate partner violence, police say“The decision to participate in the blockade was driven by strong convictions.
“I’m committed to learning from this experience and seeking more constructive and law-abiding ways to express my views in the future.”“This is not something I have ever done so there’s a lot of feelings, a lot of emotions,” he said.Story continues below advertisement“It’s a reality that I face but regardless of that reality we’re here, we showed up, we fought the fight that we felt was there from the beginning … ramifications aside and now it’s in the hands of God, ultimately.
“It is the Crown’s view that, realistically, the most appropriate sentence for these gentlemen is to sentence them to a term of jail — real jail.”“Politically motivated crime always is a calculated decision … we don’t change our governments in this country through criminal acts,” Johnston said.
Court Coutts Blockade Coutts Border Protest Crime
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