A B.C. man with a history of protest violence has been sentenced to 24 months’ probation for assaulting a peace officer at a protest involving former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Vancouver two years ago.
Jakub Jerzy Markiewicz, 29, was also accused of assaulting a peace officer causing bodily harm and wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer, but those charges were stayed at his sentencing on Aug. 22.
On Nov. 14, 2023, up to 250 protesters gathered outside a cocktail bar in Chinatown, which Trudeau was attending on personal time, and called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Some of the group entered the bar and confronted the former prime minister directly.
Vancouver police deployed 100 officers to the scene, and alleged one officer was punched and had her eyes gouged.
Earlier that same evening, protesters had confronted Trudeau while he dined at Vij’s restaurant in Vancouver.
Markiewicz also received 18 months’ probation after he pleaded guilty in June 2024 to assault with a weapon for an unrelated incident in Vancouver on March 31, 2023.
Markiewicz, who lists a Coquitlam housing co-op as his address on court documents, must abide by 14 conditions during his probation – including not masking, colouring, or disguising his face while attending protests.
Markiewicz must also not possess any weapons or knives, abstain from possessing and consuming alcohol, stay away from his two victims, report to Forensic Psychiatric Services or elsewhere for any intake, assessment, counselling or treatment as directed by his probation officer, and perform 50 hours of community work service within the first year.
In November 2016, Markiewicz was sentenced to 15 months’ probation and a 10-year weapons ban for assaulting two surveyors in March 2015, while protesting the expansion of the Kinder Morgan gas pipeline in Burnaby.
According to BC Provincial Court Judge Laura Bakan’s reasons for sentence, Markiewicz assaulted a surveyor with a weapon, a log, while masked on March 16, 2015.
In a second incident on March 24, 2015, Markiewicz kicked a surveyor several times while his face was covered by a black bandana, and his head covered by a black hood.
“He expressed no remorse or regret,” said Bakan in her reasons for judgment.
“He remained defiant and convinced that his view of the political end justified his tactics which included assaults on two workers he did not know while masked, regardless of the consequences or potential consequences to them or himself.”
Bakan added, “Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of democracy, but violent protest threatens the democratic process and the liberty and security of all within society.”
Markiewicz was ordered not to go within 100 metres of any Kinder Morgan facility or site.
Bakan noted that on June 30, 2016, prior to her disposition, Markiewicz was convicted of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm at police during a May Day protest on May 1, 2015, after the Burnaby Mountain protest assaults she found him guilty of.
According to the judgment, Crown counsel advised the court that the police officer’s behaviour prior to Markiewicz uttering the threats was “not great.”
“The Crown states Mr. Markiewicz threatened to stab a police officer in the May 2015 offence, although, again, he acknowledged that the police conduct in the matter left much to be desired,” Bakan wrote in her judgment.
Markiewicz received a conditional discharge and nine months’ probation for the May Day incident.