Juno News - January 14, 2025Coutts 3 member speaks out after friends sentenced to JAIL, community service
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Summary
Two members of the Cooties Three have been sentenced after having been found guilty of mischief over $5,000. On Friday, Marco Van Huygenbaas was sentenced to four months in jail, while George Jansen was sentenced for three months, which will be served in the community. The third member of the trio, Alex van Herc, has not yet been sentenced, and he is here to break it all down.
Transcript
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Two members of the Coots Three have been sentenced after having been found guilty of mischief over $5,000.
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On Friday, Marco van Huygenbaas was sentenced to four months in jail,
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while George Jansen was sentenced to three months, which will be served in the community.
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The third member of the trio, Alex van Herc, has not yet been sentenced,
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and he's here today with us to break it all down.
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I'm Rachel Parker. Welcome to The Rachel Parker Show.
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Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Rachel Parker Show.
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Joining us today is Alex van Herc, one of the members of the Coots Three,
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and the only one who has not been sentenced yet.
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I know that the other two, George and Marco, were sentenced on Friday.
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The judge asked them to sit in the prisoner's box, and as soon as the sentencing was read out,
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Marco was taken to jail, where he will serve his four-month sentence.
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I saw on Facebook that you had spoken to him since he's been in jail.
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So his main thing was, you know, we kind of expected, you know,
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that there was going to be a jail sentence attached to this, right?
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I mean, mischief is what it is, and the sentence for it is, a lot of times, is jail.
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His disappointment mainly is in the difference in sentencing between George and himself.
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He realizes they were both found to be abating and abetting in the charge,
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where I was just abetting the activity, I guess, of mischief.
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So he figured he was going to get, you know, 30 days,
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and George would get off on conditional sentence.
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We all always knew George would get off on the conditional sentence.
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But the big difference of the four months to nothing was definitely, it was hard on him.
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He was kind of prepared for between 30 and 90 days.
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So when he heard the sentence of 120 days, that one really touched my back.
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Like, it just, so, but he said, you know what, we, at the end of the day, he has no regrets.
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He says he did what he did with the knowing of, okay, if we go to Kutz and participate in this,
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and this goes for everybody that participated in Kutz, knew there could have been a consequence from that.
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So he says, I guess if I have to bear, be the bearer of that consequence for the big change that he made,
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One of the differences between George and Marco's sentence that the judge had said was that
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George had showed regret for his actions, and Marco did not,
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which I think is sort of what you just said, Marco acknowledged that he would maybe have to face jail time,
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and that he did that, you know, he recognized that someone was going to end up taking responsibility for those actions,
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For yourself, do you feel like at any point during this proceedings,
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have you expressed regret for your actions, or have you said,
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no, I did the right thing, and I'm proud that I stood up at Kutz?
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Well, and as I said, I have no regrets of my actions.
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Do we have regrets of some inconvenience we caused to our fellow people in Alberta?
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But there again, I mean, look at the inconvenience COVID had caused to everybody.
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So a little inconvenience of not being able to cross Kutz border.
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Was that really detrimental to anybody's health, or anything along that line to what COVID and the mandates were doing?
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And as I said, I regret, I mean, I had a lot of fellow farmers and stuff and grain traders that weren't able to trade grain,
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because a lot of them were coming through that Kutz-Sweetgrass border.
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So we'll put up with the inconvenience for what the big picture is doing,
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And that's why I said, I have regrets at that part, but not regrets of participating in that blockade.
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And I feel we made a huge change in Alberta, in Canada, in the world with what happened there.
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So it's interesting that you say, even speaking with Canadian and Albertan grain farmers,
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who I'm sure were experiencing financial laws due to the Kutz border blockade,
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they were initially upset, but it sounds like they were able to say, you know what,
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So in the end, did you have support from those farmers,
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or did they maintain that it was the wrong thing to do?
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I mean, I know personally of some farmers that were big brokers that were shipping 10,
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15 loads a day out of Sweetgrass that 100% donated, supported it,
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because he knew, he says, you know what, I have some financial loss,
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but the loss, long-term loss, he said, for my children and family is way bigger than this economic lot.
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And by the end of the day, he was able to go through other borders,
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and it cost him a little extra money, you know, to go around to do it.
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But he said, you know, probably the biggest loss was probably to the cattle feeders
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that weren't able to ship cattle, because Kutz is one of the only ones in Alberta,
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I believe it has the CFIA, a veterinarian on staff there,
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where cattle have to be inspected to go down south.
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So that impact was definitely bigger on the cattle feeders.
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But I know some of the big cattle feeders that were affected by it,
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that were absolutely fuming at me, that called me,
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and later on got to see the big picture and apologized,
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and said, Alex, it's the best thing that ever could have happened.
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You, yourself, on Friday, your lawyer, your legal counsel,
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and the court gave you 30 days to sort of get your affairs
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and Brendan Miller was really pushing the concept of the law of equality,
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where he felt that, you know, we were not the principal offenders.
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There was principal offenders there that the RCMP were aware of
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So Brendan Miller was trying to bring that, I guess, law into perspective
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and wanted all the lawyers to be on the same page and say,
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okay, the law of equality, I think it was Roe versus Adams.
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It was one of the case law he wanted to use to bring that forward,
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and we were aware of this admissions that Brendan Miller
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was wanting to bring forward already in early December,
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hey, have you looked at Brendan Miller's approach on this?
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I think it's possible that we could go this way,
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He says, you know what, I don't think it's going to work,
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and I said, well, what have we got to lose at this point?
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We've been found guilty, but if we can bring this forward
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And right up until, I think, the Tuesday before, two days before,
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I was showing him the angles of what we wanted to do
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but I feel that this approach has some chance of the judge accepting it,
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so I said, I'll have to find counsel that will.
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So he says, even if we have one that's against it and the other one not,
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and I thought, well, the only way that I can see that it's going to go against
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I was hoping to because I felt he did a great job up there on Marco's defense.
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Until Marco is out of jail, he cannot represent me.
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So he did give me some names of other legal counsel.
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But I'm just, I don't know, it's hard to make a decision now.
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Basically, like I heard the judge say in the sentencing,
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and even in mine when he was talking to me at the end,
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that he wasn't going to go through the whole process
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of reading all the case law and stuff on my sentence.
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So he's already made up his mind to some degree.
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do I have a chance of an absolute discharge based on what I was only charged with
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So my culpability involved in the whole sentence was the lowest of all the three.
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So it's either do I look for 100% discharge and go that route
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or I just accept the sentence what the judge has in mind.
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And then there again, do I give an apology letter?
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I'll never give an apology of the fact of what took place in Coutts.
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I could possibly write a letter the same way George did,
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because George didn't apologize for what happened in Coutts.
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He apologized to the people in Coutts and Milk River
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So, you know, people right away got upset with George of apologizing.
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And the other thing that really bothered me about it is the judge mentioned
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in his sentence that George was on his way to, what word did he use,
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And I was thinking, well, talk about somebody that's being rehabilitated is Marco.
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If I look at from blocking the border or participating in a blockade
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to one of the biggest advocates in change in the political world
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is that not something that to me that was a huge change?
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It's showing that he wanted to use the democratic process in future, you know, changes.
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So are you expecting then an even lesser sentence than George Jansen
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who received essentially three months of community service?
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Well, the possibility is there that I get that based on the law,
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I have the statement of facts here from the judge.
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And reading through that, they have the least amount of evidence on me
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as to basically the judge said I was a cheerleader in the event.
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And so, you know, technically he should give me less.
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But there again, I don't know, you know, he can do whatever he wants, right?
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So it's a hard decision to make for me now as to what direction to go.
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Looking at this all, you know, a few years out,
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obviously we finally have Trudeau's impending incoming resignation.
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We're going to have a liberal leadership race following that.
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At some point in the year, we're going to have a federal election.
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You know, do you feel like any of this stuff has happened
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in parts of the Coutts blockade and the Freedom Convoy?
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Or what would you say the lasting impact of the Coutts border blockade has been?
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So probably the lasting impact is the main number one is the mandates have been lifted.
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Long term, I do believe a lot of credibility was lost in the Liberal Party
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because of how he handled the trucker convoy and the Coutts blockade.
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If he would have faced it and faced the people,
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But after what he did there and not coming out to discuss it with,
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And I think from there on, it's been a downward slope for the Liberal Party.
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For, you know, I know that some of the members of the Coutts,
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I'm not sure whether this includes yourself, but certainly for Marco,
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you know, people are looking for support for people who are listening to this show
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My wife has started an e-transfer thing to put money on his canteen for in jail.
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So that can be donated through the email address is vanherk09 at gmail.com.
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So that would be just donations where he can top up his canteen
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to make sure he has extras, little things, his phone, every phone call costs money.
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And then as far as legal and family support for while he's in jail,
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there's a give, send, go, and I'm trying to remember what it's on there.
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I think it's Marco at something, give, send, go.
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But there is a give, send, go set up as well that they can contribute to.
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So that email address was vanherk09 at gmail.com.
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And then the give, send, go for Marco van Huygenbos.
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And just the last thing that I'm kind of wondering about is the lasting impact of this all.
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You know, some of the men involved here are a bit younger.
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Like, is there concern of how this is going to affect, impact future jobs?
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Or is this really a situation where, you know, Albertans,
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I know you guys are from the south part of the province, southern part of the province,
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that really people there take care of their own and that them and their families are going to be okay?
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Absolutely. It's going to impact to some degree.
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And I think that was the other reason why George Johnson got the sentence he got.
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And if he was to go to jail, he would automatically lose his license.
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And with that, then all of a sudden his job is out and gone.
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So he had to definitely look at that and take that consideration.
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And George having eight children, the judge did look on that and say,
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hey, here's a man that, you know, is a one-off type thing that happened here.
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And he knew that if George got sentenced to jail time, that he would automatically lose his license.
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I know in the political world, like I'm not sure what direction Marco wants to go,
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but as the advocate he is in politics in the last couple of years,
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I know, I believe the UCP just ruled in their policy change that anybody with a criminal record can't become a member
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or something along that line, what I heard anyway in this past week.
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So that might impact his ability to get involved.
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But the way I look at it, who wants to be involved in the UCP party right now?
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As far as I can turn, Danielle Smith got in on the coattails of the freedom movement
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And I felt that there was nothing ever given back on that aspect.
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So why would you support somebody that literally was there for her own purposes?
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We'll continue to follow the rest of the case and to see kind of where it lands up with you and your sentencing.
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That was Alex Van Herc, one of the members of the Coutts trio.
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We'll continue to follow his case to see, as I mentioned, where it ends up in about 30 days.
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That's all we have time for today on The Rachel Parker Show.