B.C. man guilty of dangerous driving for plowing through residential school march

A man who struck several people participating in a march commemorating residential school survivors with his vehicle two years ago has been convicted of dangerous driving.

Richard Manuel was accused of hitting four people with his pickup truck during the June 4, 2022, procession in Mission, B.C.

Manuel admitted to being behind the wheel but denied hitting people with his truck.

“I don’t believe critical aspects of Mr. Manuel’s evidence,” Provincial Court Judge Edna Ritchie said Monday in handing down her verdict.

Ritchie said Manuel’s account of the incident was contradicted by the testimony of other witnesses, including people not involved in the march.

2:08 Closing arguments in trial of man accused of driving into Indigenous march

She concluded that he struck three people with his truck, including one of the protest’s flaggers, and clipped a fourth.

She also found he yelled racial slurs, and said he did not care if he ran people over, including children.

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During the trial, the court heard about 150 people were making their way from Mission’s Heritage Park to the site of the former St. Mary’s Residential School and were on Lougheed Highway when the incident happened.

Crown prosecutors argued Manuel was angry about the road being blocked, and responded by driving dangerously. Prosecutors argued Manuel was the aggressor in the altercation and wasn’t in imminent danger.

Manuel testified in his own defence, and denied hitting anyone.

His defence argued he was “not looking for a fight” and responded in fright after being accosted by demonstrators.

“They were in his vehicle, they were accosting him. There were punches thrown,” lawyer Christopher Terepocki argued.

Manuel, who appeared via video from his new home in Nova Scotia, will be sentenced at a later date.