VICTORIA -- Four people have been sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay $1,000 each in restitution for squatting at a vacant elementary school in Nanaimo in 2018.
More than two-dozen squatters took over the boarded-up Rutherford Elementary School in October 2018 as part of a demonstration for more affordable housing.
A Vancouver Island Tactical Response Unit, police emergency response team, police dog services and other officers entered the building the following day and began arresting people.
Police used a city fire truck with an extension ladder to arrest some of the people on the school's roof.
On Monday, Tingchun Chen and Ivan Drury were sentenced to a year of probation and were discharged with conditions. Their co-accused, Mercedes Courtoreille and Christopher Thompson, were handed the same sentences last October.
All four had pleaded guilty to one charge each of mischief.
The four squatters were also ordered to pay $1,000 each to the school district.
The Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district estimated the damage caused by the squatters at $100,000.
