Two of the three Farfadaas found guilty of having blocked the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel for a few minutes in March 2021 got away with no prison sentence. Instead, the court imposed 120 hours of community service each, and a year’s probation.
It is a “lenient” sentence, said Judge Jean-Jacques Gagné, of the Court of Quebec, in rendering his decision Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse.
Steeve Charland and Karol Tardif were found guilty of mischief and conspiracy last March.
On March 13, 2021, these members of the Farfadaas group participated in a major demonstration in Montreal to denounce the health measures imposed to counter the spread of COVID-19. At trial, they testified to witnessing police brutality that day. They say they then spontaneously decided to block the tunnel that connects Montreal to the South Shore to make a “coup de brilliance” and denounce the police by exercising their freedom of expression.
Except that in his decision on their guilt, Judge Gagné ruled that the actions of Mr. Charland and Ms. Tardif, i.e. blocking traffic, were intended primarily to disrupt and provoke. Communicating the message was “secondary,” he wrote in his ruling. “Visibility was not important to them, otherwise they would not have chosen an underground thoroughfare. »
Crown Suggestion
The sentence imposed had been suggested by the Crown prosecutor, Me Martin Bourgeois. Gagné J. agreed with this recommendation, although he was not required to do so. The two offenders had asked for a discharge, to avoid having a criminal record.
The magistrate refused. They do not have “the profile” of candidates who can obtain an absolution, he decided. They would have to have demonstrated that they would suffer particular negative consequences, which is not the case here, “except for the potential embarrassments common to all those who have a criminal record”, estimates the magistrate.
During the trial, a woman testified that she was afraid because she did not know what was happening, or what the people who had immobilized their vehicles were going to do. The motorists were captives of the tunnel, had denounced Me Bourgeois, not being able to extricate themselves from it. Emergency vehicles would not have been able to circulate in this nerve artery, he added. Videos filed at trial show a man getting out of his car with a hammer and hitting a vehicle, adding to the confusion.
According to Judge Gagné, the sentence must be “fair and proportional” and reflect the consequences of the actions on the citizens trapped in the bridge-tunnel that day. There are many ways to demonstrate and take a stand “against single thought” but blocking traffic in a tunnel is not one of them, he added in his courtroom on Wednesday.
If Ms. Tardif and Mr. Charland commit another offense during the probationary period, a more severe sentence could be imposed on them.
The third person to be convicted of mischief and conspiracy for blocking the bridge-tunnel, anti-sanitary measures leader Mario Roy, has not yet received his sentence. He asked to be able to file an expert opinion from the controversial Dr. Mailloux before the judge renders his decision. The Crown has already signaled its intention to seek a prison sentence for Mr. Roy.
Other people had been charged for the blocking: two pleaded guilty, one died before trial and the seventh was acquitted.