A Stanley Cup rioter who smashed up a Starbucks to protest what he called corporate greed escaped jail time Friday.
Richard MacMillan was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence, to be served in the community, and one year probation.
The judge also ruled he can’t set foot in any B.C. Starbucks.
“I’d like to say sorry to the people of Vancouver, and I’m extremely remorseful for what happened on June 15th,” MacMillan said after his court appearance.
He then walked away from reporters, declining to answer questions.
His lawyer, Mandy Cheema, said she agreed with the conditional sentence, after arguing in court MacMillan deserved a conditional discharge.
“Mr. MacMillan is a young fellow who had no prior record. He had some sympathetic circumstances,” she said, referring to MacMillan being unemployed, on disability, and dealing with mental health and drug issues.
MacMillan was downtown on the eve of the riot to watch the hockey game on an outdoor screen.
Sometime around 9 p.m., he took a trestle from a barricade, approached a Starbucks at the corner of Dunsmuir St. and Seymour St., and began hitting the store.
Passersby grew angry with MacMillan, the judge said, until they physically intervened, with one person hitting him in the face.
MacMillan admitted his guilt to police after his arrest in Dec. 2011.
He also told them as the riot broke out, he wanted to show contempt for Starbucks and what he perceived as corporate greed on their part.
His sentence comes a day after Timothy Kwong received an 18-month conditional sentence for helping set a truck on fire during the riot, which broke out after the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to the Boston Bruins.
Premier Christy Clark pledged to throw the book at rioters after the riot, telling media “the days of a slap on the wrist for this kind of behaviour are gone…Consequences are necessary if we want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
A sample of 90 riot cases shows 36 rioters have pled not guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Eleven of those people have pled not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Of those sentenced, 12 people avoided jail, including Kwong and MacMillan. But in almost as many cases—nine—rioters served time.
Emmanuel Alviar received the least amount of jail time at one month for his part in the riot, while Ryan Dickinson, who overturned police cars, was handed the longest sentence of 17 months due to a history of violence.
The rest of the 90 cases are working their way through the system.
To date, 173 people have been formally charged and more than 100 have entered guilty pleas.
With files from CTV British Columbia’s Jon Woodward
