Marco Van Huigenbos, left, and Alex Van Herk arrive at court for a sentencing hearing in Lethbridge, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. Each were found guilty in April of mischief for their roles in the blockade that tied up cross-border traffic in Coutts, Alta., for two weeks in early 2022.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshJeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
An Alberta judge is considering whether two men should serve time in jail for their involvement in a two-week highway blockade at the Canada-U.S. border near Coutts, Alta., in early 2022.
Marco Van Huigenbos, George Janzen and Alex Van Herk were convicted of mischief over $5,000 by a jury in Lethbridge last April. On Thursday, the Crown argued Mr. Van Huigenbos should be sentenced to nine months in jail, and Mr. Janzen to a term of six months.
All three men were slated for sentencing this week, but Mr. Van Herk’s lawyer told court he’d been fired before the proceedings on Thursday.
“We don’t change our governments in this country through criminal acts. That is what was being hoped for,” said Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston, during the sentencing hearing at Court of King’s Bench in Lethbridge on Thursday. “This was a hostage taking of a highway with the goal of creating political change.”
Mr. Johnston argued deterrence was key, so “future persons who may decide to commit a similar offence blocking critical infrastructure will know that a jail sentence is waiting for them.”
“This is not a sentencing about freedom of expression,” the prosecutor told Justice Keith Yamauchi. “A criminal offence took place, and this sentencing is about what to do and how to sentence people when they consciously decide to break the law with a political purpose in mind.”
The defence lawyers are asking Justice Yamauchi for absolute discharges, conditional sentences or – at most – a week or two in jail for Mr. Van Huigenbos.
The men did not testify at their trial, and their defence lawyers called no evidence. Court heard Mr. Van Huigenbos did not co-operate with a defence request for a presentence report about his personal circumstances, and he did not speak at his sentencing hearing on Thursday.
Mr. Janzen read a prepared apology to the residents of Milk River and Coutts, “to personally express my heartfelt apologies for the disruption caused during the freedom convoy blockade in your community.”
“I acknowledge that during our protests, laws were broken,” he said. “This was not in line with our intentions to promote change through peaceful and lawful means.”
Mr. Van Huigenbos, Mr. Janzen and Mr. Van Herk were among hundreds of protesters who gathered in Coutts in early 2022, parking farm machinery, semi-trailers, RVs and vehicles on Highway 4, stymieing traffic and trade for two weeks. A larger convoy demonstration rolled into Ottawa around the same time, protesting COVID-19 rules and other government restrictions.
Though there’s no evidence the three men organized the protest at Coutts or blocked the highway themselves, Justice Yamauchi found all three abetted or encouraged the protesters once the mischief was under way, through their speeches and actions.
“They were the voice of the protest,” he wrote in an outline of the case last fall. “And proudly so.”
Justice Yamauchi said Mr. Janzen and Mr. Van Huigenbos also aided the protesters by helping obtain supplies and food, and in activities such as negotiating with the RCMP. He said Mr. Van Huigenbos is the only one who, beyond a reasonable doubt, assumed a leadership role.
In sentencing arguments on Thursday, the Crown prosecutor, Mr. Johnston, said Mr. Van Huigenbos’s increased level of involvement is worthy of a “short, sharp shot” in jail. He argued against a conditional sentence in the community, which he speculated Mr. Van Huigenbos may not co-operate with anyway.
In written and oral arguments, Mr. Van Huigenbos’s defence lawyer, Brendan Miller, argued for an absolute discharge, or, at worst, seven to 14 days in jail. He said Mr. Van Huigenbos’s right to equality before the law is being violated because hundreds of protesters at Coutts, including those who blocked the highway, faced no consequences.
“There is no reason to put this man in jail at all ...,” he told Justice Yamauchi. “You’ll send a message that says, ‘Just don’t be seen. Be there, commit the offence, you’ll get away with that. Just don’t be seen.’ ”
Mr. Janzen’s defence lawyer, Alan Honner, said his client is not an extremist and that his actions were “a one-off offence” motivated by a concern over what he believed was “a faulty government policy that was detrimentally affecting his children.” He said unlike other activists, those at Coutts almost seemed to “fall into this illegal blockade.”
Sentencing is slated for Friday afternoon.
With a report from The Canadian Press