Two environmental activists convicted of multiple mischief charges related to blocking roads around Nanaimo during protests against old-growth logging will serve their sentences in community.
Howard Breen, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion Vancouver Island, received a nine-month conditional sentence, six months of which he will serve on house arrest.
Breen must perform 100 hours of community service and will be on probation for 18 months following his conditional sentence.
Melanie Murray will serve a 12-month suspended sentence, which includes 50 hours of community service and 12 months of probation.
Both Breen and Murray are under conditions not to block roads or sidewalks.
When he found the pair guilty in May, the provincial court judge rejected an argument that the activists had no choice but to break the law to raise awareness about the climate emergency.
“We don’t want to break the law, but when the law stands between us and our children’s survival, we have no choice,” the pair said in a joint statement.
“This isn’t about disobedience — it’s about a moral obligation to act. Our duty as parents and as citizens of this planet supersedes any allegiance to a system that refuses to protect life.
“To think otherwise, in the face of an approaching insufferable extinction, would be an unforgivable betrayal.”
