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Jail sentence for public intoxication

One too many episodes of public intoxication resulted in George Clair of Port Hardy being separated from the public by a 30-day jail sentence issued Mar. 29.

One too many episodes of public intoxication resulted in George Clair of Port Hardy being separated from the public by a 30-day jail sentence issued Mar. 29.

Already on probation as the result of a November, 2010, conviction for intoxication in a public place, Clair was found in breach in separate incidents on Feb. 19, Mar. 5 and Mar. 25 of this year.

In each case, RCMP officers were called and in one case Clair was unresponsive and had to be taken to hospital. In the final incident, in which Clair twice returned to Thunderbird Mall after being asked by security to leave the premises, a disturbance charge was added.

After Crown counsel Leslie Fillingham enumerated the charges and Clair's criminal record, she said Crown was seeking a 21-day jail term less five days already served.

"There's not much I can say," defence counsel Paul Grier said. "He cannot control his alcoholism, and that's what gets him in trouble. He's the first to admit he's got a problem."

Judge Brian Saunderson said it didn't have to be the public's problem. Noting Clair's probation did not prohibit drinking, but only drinking or being intoxicated in public, Saunderson issued a ruling for 30 days in jail, less time served.

"If you want to be drunk at home, you can do that all you want," Saunderson said. "You have a problem when you inflict yourself on the public and force people to have to skirt around you."