Driver who hit residential school marchers with truck escapes jail time

Theman who was criminally charged after he hit several people with his vehicle during a memorial march for residential school survivors in Mission, B.C., won't have to go to jail.

On Monday, Richard Albert Manuel, 79, was handed a nine-month conditional sentence in Abbotsford provincial court after being found guilty of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

The conditions include a 12-month driving prohibition and curfew.

Manuel drove his blue Chevrolet Silverado and hit four marchers on the Lougheed Highway near the site of the former St. Mary's Indian Residential School on June 4, 2022.

Witnessessaid the driver also made racist comments and threats before hitting them. He then leftthe scene.

One victim suffered aconcussion and soft-tissue damage to his hip. Another was taken to hospital.

St. Mary's operated at two different sites in Mission for more than a century before it was shut down in 1984.

The march was organized by the Crazy Indians Brotherhood after the discovery of potential burial sites at theKamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021 sparked a nationalreckoning.