Justin Chad Rehberg will spend two months in jail, and serve 30 months probation, for helping his older brother burn a cross on the lawn of home shared by a mixed-race Poplar Grove couple and their five children last February.
In a Jan. 11 Windsor provincial court proceeding, Judge Claudine MacDonald sentenced Rehberg, 20, on convictions of inciting racial hatred and criminal harassment for his role in the cross-burning incident that sparked international outrage, earning Hants County, and Nova Scotia, a slew of negative publicity.
MacDonald accepted a joint recommendation from Crown attorney Darrell Carmichael and Rehberg’s defence lawyer Chris Manning when she sentenced Rehberg to serve concurrent two-month terms, for both charges, in provincial custody.
Carmichael told the court that Rehberg’s older brother, Nathan Neil Rehberg, 21, was the first person in Canada to be sentenced for inciting hatred by burning a cross on someone’s property. Carmichael said they referred to Nathan’s precedent-setting case when determining a sentence for his younger brother.
Manning argued that because Rehberg immediately accepted responsibility for his actions by confessing to the police, and behaved while on remand, he should receive a lesser sentence than Nathan, who was less co-operative with police.
When invited to speak before his sentence was imposed by MacDonald, Rehberg told the court: “I’m sorry, I screwed up. It was a horrible mistake.”
Rehberg said in an agreed statement of facts that the cross-burning was merely an act of revenge, in response to name-calling. MacDonald advised Rehberg to avoid such illegal retaliatory reactions to name-calling in the future.
Nathan was sentenced in Kentville Supreme Court Jan. 10 to more time behind bars, and 30 months of probation. Justice John Murphy ordered Nathan to spend an additional two months in jail — he had already served 69 days in a provincial institution — to finish a six-month sentence for the criminal harassment conviction.
For the conviction of inciting racial hatred, Justice Murphy said four months plus one day in custody, to be served concurrently while Nathan completes his sentence for criminal harassment, would suffice.
Both men must undergo substance abuse counselling, complete 50 hours of community service and provide DNA samples. They are prohibited from owning and operating firearms for 10 years after their incarceration. Each must obey a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for part of their probationary periods.
The targeted couple — Shayne Howe, who is black, and Michelle Lyon, who is white — were present for Nathan’s sentencing, but not for Justin’s.
