Prosecutors are seeking jail sentences for two pipeline protesters convicted last year of criminal contempt for storming a Trans Mountain worksite in Kamloops and refusing to leave.
April Thomas and Jocelyn Billie Pierre were two of eight protesters convicted following trials in December in BC Supreme Court. They are the only two who have not yet been sentenced.
Thomas and Pierre, alongside Henry Sauls and Romilly Cavanaugh, were convicted for violating an injunction that lays out a five-metre buffer zone around all Trans Mountain construction sites.
During a hearing on Monday, Crown prosecutor Trevor Shaw said he is seeking a 32-day sentence for Thomas and a 40-day sentence for Pierre.
Shaw said he is OK with Pierre serving her sentence as house arrest to allow her to care for her teenaged son.
The two women were among a group of people who entered onto a Trans Mountain worksite on Mission Flats on Oct. 15, 2020.
Thomas climbed onto an excavator and took a selfie, then refused to leave. Pierre zip-tied herself to a bulldozer and had to be carried away by police.
Sauls was sentenced to 28 days in jail and Cavanaugh received a 32-day sentence.
Four other protesters — Miranda Dick, Heather Lamoureux, Susan Bibbings and Laura Zadarozny — were also handed similar jail sentences in February for their part in an Oct. 17, 2020, protest at a Trans Mountain worksite near Kamloops Airport.
A decision from BC Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick is expected sometime this week.
