Anti-mandate protester agrees to alternate measures
Sean Patrick Kenney, 26, of New Maryland, was facing trials on charges stemming from January 2022 rally at city hall
An opponent of COVID-19 restrictions agreed Wednesday to go through an alternate-measures program rather than stand trial on charges stemming from a January 2022 anti-mandate rally at city hall.
Sean Patrick Kenney, 26, of Cortland Street in New Maryland, was in Fredericton provincial court for a case-management session and possible settlement conference over several charges stemming from his opposition to government-imposed pandemic mandates.
Kenney is accused of obstructing or interfering with the lawful use of the Justice Building on Oct. 18, 2021; obstructing and resisting a city police officer at a pandemic mandate protest at city hall, and counselling the crowd to commit the offence of obstruction Jan. 22, 2022; and driving while suspended May 1 and Oct. 11, 2022.
He had been scheduled to stand trial on those charges in January, but Judge Cameron Gunn granted him an adjournment when Kenney argued he was having trouble getting additional disclosure to mount his defence.
The judge set the case over to Wednesday to set a new trial date, but also to determine if the case could be resolved without a trial.
The case-management conference wasn’t open to the public, but once it was concluded, prosecutor Rebecca Butler said the Crown was offering to allow Kenney to go through an alternate-measures program.
Participating in alternate measures for criminal and quasi-criminal offences means defendants avoid trials and, more importantly, criminal records for those offences.
Typically, defendants are required to perform certain tasks or fulfil requirements to complete the program.
Defendants have to acknowledge responsibility for their actions, and among the tasks administrators of the program ask them to perform are writing a letter of apology and/or performing community-service work.
Gunn set the case over to May 17 to see if Kenney completes the program.
If he does so successfully, the Crown will withdraw the charges against him.
In cases where defendants don’t complete alternate measures, they get set back down for trial.
Other cases pending
Kenney is also set to appear May 17 in the Court of King’s Bench, as he’s appealing convictions and fines for an Emergency Measures Act (EMA) offence for failing to self-isolate when ordered to do so on May 5, 2021, and two trespassing citations at the south-side Wal-Mart and the University of New Brunswick campus in Fredericton.
He’d pleaded guilty to those offences, but in a notice of appeal filed within days, he claimed he’d done so under duress.
Furthermore, Kenney is awaiting a decision from the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, having argued last week he should be granted a new trial on an EMA charge for refusing to wear a mask at Wal-Mart on Fredericton’s south side in April 2021.
He was convicted after trial in provincial court and fined, and he challenged that decision to the Court of King’s Bench, which handles summary-court appeals.
That appeal was dismissed, prompting him to take his case to the Court of Appeal, the province’s highest court.
Kenney and another member of the anti-mandate movement, Mitchell Albert of Dieppe, took provincial court Judge Kenneth Oliver to small claims court last year.
They were seeking $3,000 in damages and orders to keep him from presiding over the cases of those similarly opposed to government pandemic restrictions.
The small-claims adjudicator dismissed their case, ruling the Provincial Court Act prohibits such lawsuits against judges for their actions from the bench.
Kenney and Albert have filed an appeal of that decision as well.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.