Spring sentencing for high-profile B.C. COVID-19 mandate protester

A high-profile anti-COVID-19-mandate protester will be sentenced this spring on charges that came out of a conflict at an Interior Health building during the height of the pandemic.

David Lindsay was convicted late last year of two counts of assault for a conflict outside the Interior Health building Aug. 19, 2021 and is scheduled for sentencing in April of this year.

He will also be sentenced to one count of contempt of court, a charge that arose June 16, 2023, during the trial that went forward in dribs and drabs throughout most of 2023.

At that time, he refused to follow the direction of the judge in the case.

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“He has been given an opportunity to purge the contempt. That issue will be addressed at a date to be determined in January,” a representative from the BC Prosecution Service said last year.

That was one of many twists and turns in the trial looking into the Aug. 19, 2021 assault.

Another incident saw Lindsay apply to have Crown counsel David Grabavac found in contempt of court for what he deemed to be lies and misrepresentations. That was ultimately dismissed.

The assault involved Lindsay and Interior Health manager of protection services Gregory Smith at the Interior Health building during a protest.

When Smith testified last year, he indicated he told Lindsay not to enter the Interior Health building but that his order was ignored.

“When Mr. Lindsay started to approach the doorway, what if anything did you do with your body to get ready for it?” Crown prosecutor Grabavac asked Smith in March 2023 as the trial continued.

“I placed my feet and my body in a supportive position anticipating his trying to push past,” Smith said.

Lindsay, he said, was standing in a similar position with his arms at his sides, a stance also shown in video footage.

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Police and about half a dozen protesters are also present when Lindsay walks forward, seemingly making contact with Smith. Police are then called in for what Smith described to them as “assault.”

The trial judge Cathaline Heindrichs said the issue at the heart of the trial is whether or not Lindsay used intentional force against Smith.

The trial was originally scheduled for three days in March but stretched after a stuttered start, with Lindsay initially not wanting to participate.

Lindsay has been deemed a vexatious litigant and is not permitted to initiate legal action without consent from the courts.