81-year-old protester loses court appeal

B.C.'s Court of Appeal has upheld a 10-month sentence for an 81-year-old environmentalist.

Betty Krawczyk was convicted of criminal contempt for violating an injunction to stay away from logging crews in West Vancouver as they began work on the Sea-to-Sky Highway expansion in 2006.

Krawczyk, a great-grandmother who has been jailed before for her environmental activism, appealed both her conviction and sentence.

She had already lost the appeal of her conviction, and earlier this year the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case.

This week, the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected Krawczyk's sentencing appeal in a unanimous decision, ruling that although the 10-month sentence was high, it wasn't unreasonable.

Krawczyk refused to be released while her appeals were heard, and has already served her sentence.

Krawczyk's conviction for blocking the highway, which was being upgraded in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics, was the latest in a string of convictions and jail terms that began with her arrest for blockading logging trucks in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island in the early 1990s.