Repeat highway blockader avoids jail, but hit with criminal record
NANAIMO — While he’s not going to jail, a key organizer behind a pair of disruptive Vancouver Island highway blockades vows he’ll find other ways to get his message across.
Derek Hugh Menard, 34, was issued 12 months probation as part of a suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to obstructing traffic days apart on the Trans Canada Hwy. in south Nanaimo and Langford in April 2022.
The Wednesday, May 17 decision from provincial court judge Brian Harvey followed a contested sentencing hearing in January in which the Crown pushed for a two week jail sentence against the Nanaimo biologist.
On April 8, 2022 Menard super-glued his hand to the highway at Cranberry Ave. impeding southbound traffic for about 45 minutes as part of a coordinated ‘Save Old Growth’ protest movement.