On Thursday, the man behind the wheel, Tyler Manchur, was sentenced to house arrest following a joint submission by the Crown and defence.
On Thursday, the man behind the wheel, Tyler Manchur, was sentenced to house arrest following a joint submission by the Crown and defence.
Questions are being raised about the sentence given a man who drove through a Kelowna homeless camp three years ago, badly injuring one of the residents.
“It’s not fair cause he should be responsible just like anyone else,” Joel Bell, the victim’s friend told Global News.
Bell is upset the man who seriously injured his friend at Kelowna’s homeless encampment will not be spending any time behind bars.
“If I was to run somebody down on the streets, I would be held accountable for that and I believe he should be held accountable for that, his negligence,” Bell said.
In September 2022, then 50-year-old Jeff Auclair was pinned under a black Dodge Ram truck and dragged for about 100 metres after the truck slammed through the fence at the homeless encampment and into an occupied tent.
On Thursday, the man behind the wheel, Tyler Manchur, was sentenced to house arrest following a joint submission by the Crown and defence.
“He has a tremendous amount of remorse and regret over his actions and what they caused,” defence counsel Kevin Westell told Global News.
However, the lack of jail time is raising questions among those who call the encampment home.
“They don’t care about the people down here and it is easy to move along, you know just kind of write it off,” Bell said.
“Maybe cause (Auclair is) a better working, productive part of society, as opposed to some of the people down here.”
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When police arrived on the scene the night of the incident, Manchur was intoxicated, blowing twice over the legal limit.
But impairment charges were stayed. Manchur instead pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
On Thursday, he recieved a 23-month conditional sentence to be followed by three years of probation.
Manchur was also handed a five-year driving prohibition and a 1$,500 fine. The judge also ordered him to abstain from alcohol during both the conditional sentence and probation period, which amounts to almost five years.
“This is going to be a significant restriction on his life,” Westell said.
“He is going to be, in essence, imprisoned in his own home, allowed to leave, for the most part, only to earn income for his family.”
Auclair spent months in the hospital. He passed away the year following the incident with his cause of death unknown.
“He was a good, outgoing person who liked (and) enjoyed life and he really enjoyed riding his bike and being with his friends,” Bell said.
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