Judge tells BC shoplifter to consider shopping at thrift stores instead

A Prince George Provincial Court judge reluctantly agreed Feb. 4 with a Crown prosecutor and the lawyer for a woman who pleaded guilty to shoplifting at Real Canadian Superstore.

Judge Michael Brecknell sentenced Chantelle Christy Bird, 32, to a conditional discharge and one year’s probation.

Prince George RCMP and the 2155 Ferry Ave. store’s asset protection staff were in the middle of a boost-and-bust anti-shoplifting project when Bird stole $500 worth of goods, including children’s clothing, boots, body wash, an electric toothbrush and groceries, on June 13, 2025.

Crown prosecutor Astitwa Thapa told the court that Bird was motivated by “poverty-related issues.”

“The Crown is telling the court that this is like a case of Les Misérables character Jean Valjean, stealing a loaf of bread to feed himself? Stealing clothes, that’s what you’re trying to get at, it’s not as bad a crime as stealing something else?” Brecknell said.

“An Indigenous woman with no record, she is 32 at this stage,” Thapa replied. “If we can avoid giving her a criminal record, it would definitely go in conjunction with the Crown’s Indigenous justice framework, which aims to reduce the over-incarceration of Indigenous people in Canadian prisons, criminal records too.”

Brecknell said he was not considering a jail sentence but challenged Thapa to justify Bird’s fourth career conditional discharge.

“How many conditional discharges does one qualify for in the scope of their life? Is it like you punch your ticket one year, and if you get three or four years down the road, you get to punch your ticket again?” Brecknell said.

Thapa said it was not unreasonable under the circumstances for Bird, who told the court she had a hard time in life and regretted the incident.

Before Brecknell pronounced the sentence — which includes 10 hours of community work service and a ban on visiting any Real Canadian Superstore in BC — he said it is in the public interest to deter shoplifting to stop price hikes.

“Everybody’s suffering because things are getting tougher,” Brecknell said.

“Every time somebody steals from a grocery store, Mr. Weston and Mr. Pattison, the owners of the two biggest grocery store chains in the province, they cover their losses by simply increasing the price to the rest of the people who come into the store.”

He told Bird that if she needs more clothes for her children, she should consider shopping at thrift stores.