Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is escorted by his RCMP security detail as protesters shout and throw gravel while leaving a campaign stop at a local micro brewery during the Canadian federal election campaign in London Ont., on Sept. 6, 2021.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The man who threw gravel at Justin Trudeau at a protest-interrupted 2021 campaign event should be sent to jail, a prosecutor argued on Monday, claiming the man’s actions were not just an assault on a candidate but an assault on democracy.
The defence lawyer for 26-year-old Shane Marshall, meanwhile, said his client’s impulse and anger management issues got the better of him when he tossed stones at the prime minister during the September 2021 campaign stop in London, Ont.
Marshall pleaded guilty to common assault in March and is set to be sentenced next week after lawyers made their submissions before a provincial court justice on Monday.
Crown attorney Jeremy Carnegie asked for a sentence of 30 days in jail, arguing that with vitriol and hatred in political discourse bringing Canada “closer and closer to violence all the time,” the court needed to impose a sentence strong enough to deter others from taking similar actions.
“This isn’t just an assault on a candidate. It’s an assault on our democracy,” Carnegie said.
“Violence in the political process, specifically violence during election campaigns, must be denounced and it must be deterred.”
Defence lawyer Luke Reidy said Marshall, from nearby St. Thomas, Ont., is remorseful and should be given a one-year suspended sentence with mandatory community service.
He said Marshall went to the Trudeau campaign event with the intention to protest.
“The act of throwing stones was an impulse. It was an impulse that Shane Marshall should have the ability to control, but in that moment, he reacted,” Reidy said.
Marshall briefly addressed the court and apologized, saying he never intended “to cause a scene or hurt anyone.”
Trudeau’s 2021 federal campaign events as Liberal leader were marred by protestors who railed against COVID-19 vaccine policies and measures the government introduced to stem the spread of the virus.
Trudeau referred to crowds following his campaign as “anti-vaxxer mobs” and spent the last weeks of the race, which coincided with the fourth wave of the pandemic, campaigning on a pledge to mandate shots for federal workers and travellers on planes, trains and cruise ships.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Monday that it would not currently be commenting on the case.
The People’s Party of Canada has previously said it removed a man by the same name as Marshall as riding association president after reviewing video clips of the stone throwing. The far-right political party ran on a platform that included drastically reducing the number of refugees and immigrants Canada accepts and repealing vaccine mandates.
Reidy told the court Marshall was “very passionate about his politics,” though did not clarify what those political views amounted to, saying only that they formed a “minority opinion.” The lawyer then argued that “without people like Shane Marshall, minority opinions would not be heard.”
Carnegie, the Crown attorney, said violence directed toward political candidates could dissuade people from running for office, an essential feature of a strong democracy.
“Violence against political candidates, any political candidates, hurts our democracy as a whole,” he said.