Pride group disappointed at lack of jail time for Kings County hate crime against transgender community

A member of Valley Pride says they are disappointed that there wasn’t a stiffer penalty for a man who made threats against members of the transgender community that caused the cancellation of not only a 2SLGBTQ+ event in Kentville, but also an unrelated activity being organized by the town. 

Nathan Byron Rudderham, 26, was sentenced last week in Kentville provincial court to an eight-month conditional sentence order followed by two years of probation for wilfull promotion of hatred. The conditional sentence was reduced to six months because of the month he has spent in custody since his arrest in late February. 

He was also ordered to delete all his social media accounts during his conditional sentence order and stay off social media. 

The Crown has been asking for jail time. 

Ashley Cyr of Valley Pride said the lack of an actual jail sentence was disappointing.  

“I think it’s not really about what happened in this particular case, but it’s about the larger issues around the rise in anti-trans rhetoric that we’re seeing here in Canada and in the United States and just how much people are willing to take it seriously and penalize it,” they said. 

“I would love to see cases like this taken with a little more gravity than this one was, but ultimately it is not a system designed to serve queer people, not designed to uphold our rights, and we were really hoping in this case there would be.” 

Cyr said they’re concerned that the penalty “isn’t going to send a clear enough message to people that hate speech won’t stand.” 

They said it will take more outright speeches of support from politicians and leaders in the community to make a difference. 

“We recently had Trans Day of Visibility and we’re really pleased that MP Kody Blois put out a statement affirming trans rights and the work we’re doing here in the Valley, and I think we just need more of that, louder, and need them to make statements more publicly.” 

Cyr said they understand that sentencing is a case-by-case thing, “but it didn’t seem quite in line with other similar cases.” 

Personal and community impact statements were filed with the court. 

“I think they really clearly illustrated the harm that this kind of thing does to our community,” Cyr said. “It’s not just that one comment from one person, but people seeing it and having it incite more hatred. We also don’t know how many members of our community saw it and now don’t feel safe.” 

They said these kinds of issues need to be taken more seriously, “especially in our political climate.” 

Rudderham pleaded guilty to a charge of willful promotion of hatred. He was originally also charged with uttering a death threat and breach of a probation order after his arrest Feb. 21, a day after he commented on a post by the Town of Kentville on its Facebook page. 

The post was promoting a cross-country ski event organized by Valley Pride for Feb. 20. The comments were directed specifically at the transgender community.  

The organizers and Kentville police decided it was best to cancel the event, along with a separate family sledding event not connected to Valley Pride happening the same day at another park in the town.  

Cyr said the post referenced gun violence.