'Throw the book at me' says James after guilty verdict
By Suzy Hamilton
The Sinixt spokesperson who was accused of breaching an injunction prohibiting anyone from blocking a logging operation on Perry Ridge was found guilty of criminal contempt in BC Supreme Court Tuesday.
Marilyn James was given a 14 day conditional sentence to be served at home for standing in the way of Galena Contracting’s James Hascarl as he headed for work one day after the injunction was issued March 3.
But she told the court she would not obey the conditions of the sentence.
“You may as well throw the book at me…I have no plan whatsoever to comply with that order,” she told BC Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan when he handed down the sentence.
James and fellow protester Dennis Zarelli were arrested by RCMP on the morning of March 4 for refusing to stand aside when loggers came to work. They were released from jail that evening after signing an undertaking that they would not return to the protest site at the Perry Ridge camp.
The pair was charged with criminal contempt for breaching the injunction prohibiting interference with Galena Contracting’s logging on Perry Ridge.
Zarelli eventually pleaded guilty to the charge in May and received a conditional 14 day sentence which he served from his home.
But Marilyn James pled not guilty and elected a trial, which was heard over a three day period. Her defence was that Galena owner Ray Hascarl had a key to the gate, and she didn’t, and crews were already working on the road.
She argued that she did not prevent Galena Contracting from working.
But Justice McEwan ruled that the intent of James and Zarelli physically standing on the road was clear and that James had been overhead asking supporters to join her at the site when she was at the courthouse the day before.
“The gate is not an issue. I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that free passage was impeded,” the Judge said.
“You publicly defied an injunction and committed a criminal act in doing so.”
James, who has said all along that the land in question is on unceded Sinixt territory, was asked to comment on a proper sentence for her after the guilty verdict was read.
“What this court does is highly unjust to Indian people,” James told Justice McEwan.
“I don’t believe that I broke any laws. I don’t believe that I don’t have any rights. I don’t believe that you aren’t causing me any harm, because you are.
“You should prosecute me to the full extent of the law.”
Crown counsel had no submission for sentencing so Justice McEwan ruled that it would be fair to give James the same sentence he gave Zarelli.
About two dozen Sinixt supporters were on hand for the sentencing and held a brief rally outside the courthouse when the hearing was over.
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