There might have been some trumped-up charges, but at least the bail money all went to a good cause.
A jail-and-bail fundraiser was held Wednesday at Woodgrove Centre in support of the Tour de Rock.
By late afternoon the cell, set up inside the mall, was filled with three suspects – Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Paul Manly, City of Nanaimo manager of bylaw services Dave LaBerge and Best Buy Mobile assistant manager Josie Vey.
Manly was arrested for a fashion violation, LaBerge said he couldn’t hear his charges because he was too busy protesting his arrest, and Vey was arrested because Const. Cydney MacNeill “just didn’t like the way she was looking at me.”
The people arrested on Wednesday were asked to try to find a way to raise bail money, which supported the Cops for Cancer. The Tour de Rock gets underway this weekend on the north Island and the riders will cycle all the way down the Island, making their way through a number of communities including Nanaimo.
MacNeil and Simon Douthwaite are the local Tour de Rock team members and Douthwaite said even before the tour gets underway, the riders are already receiving community support wherever they go.
“I’m from overseas and I’ve never seen anything like this event … in other countries that I’ve lived in,” he said. “For me personally, when the tour rode into [a] school when my daughter was still having chemotherapy about three years ago, I’ll never in my whole life forget that feeling of community support I had and I felt. When you hear the sirens and you see them, it was overwhelming and wonderful for me and I want to do that for other parents and families this year and I’m becoming a part of the community myself as I do it.”
RELATED: Tour de Rock riders on bikes to race Nanaimo firefighters on old-fashioned pump car
RELATED: Meet the 2019 Tour de Rock team
RELATED: Father brings parent’s perspective to Tour de Rock
editor@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
