QUEBEC – A prominent Quebec protester accused of contempt of court has received his sentence: 120 hours of community service.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois had been found guilty of contempt during the student unrest, with a court ruling that he encouraged protesters to violate legal injunctions.

In reacting to today’s sentencing, Nadeau-Dubois points out that he’s already appealing the verdict and the penalty won’t apply if he wins that appeal.

Nadeau-Dubois was perhaps the most famous figure in the protest movement that swept the province this spring and made headlines around the world.

He was the co-spokesman of the more radical student group.

But he repeatedly bristled at suggestions he was a leader of that movement. Nadeau-Dubois noted that he was simply one of the people appointed by the CLASSE group to speak publicly about positions adopted, by consensus, at meetings of group members.

But the charismatic young firebrand became a media darling and conducted countless interviews about the strike.

His legal problems stemmed from one of those interviews.

Some students had sued for the right to return to school, despite declared strikes. Many of those injunctions were resisted or ignored.

Nadeau-Dubois was found guilty of contempt for comments he made in a television interview during the spring — where he called it “legitimate” for students to take the necessary means, like creating picket lines, to ensure that democratic strike votes were respected.

Nadeau-Dubois’ community-service sentence was well short of the maximum penalty: he had faced a possible $50,000 fine and a year in prison.

Fellow protesters have rallied to his cause.

So far, he said he has raised more than $100,000 in donations — all from individual contributions — to fund his legal fight to appeal the contempt verdict.

He quipped in a recent interview with The Canadian Press that events stemming from the spring dispute were a memorable learning experience.

“We were not in school during the spring, but I think we learned a lot — and I think that we have learned more than ever in our life,” Nadeau-Dubois said in the interview.