An Armstrong senior who refused to confirm his name in court spent the remainder of the day in a prison cell after the judge issued an arrest warrant for not showing up.

Romeo Theodore Joseph Leduc appeared in a Vernon courtroom, Aug. 5, for a routine appearance on an animal cruelty charge, but employing a tactic often used by freeman-on-the-land followers, the senior refused to confirm his name.

BC Provincial Court Judge David Patterson clearly had no time for his theatrics and ordered an arrest warrant on the basis that Leduc, who was standing right in front of him, had failed to show up to court.

On leaving the courtroom, Leduc was promptly arrested by a sheriff.

He then spent the remainder of the day in a prison cell, before being granted bail late in the afternoon.

It’s the second time since being charged with animal cruelty that Leduc has been arrested for failing to show up to court and later released on bail.

Leduc’s animal cruelty charge dates back to 2022 when his dog, Rufus, was seized by the BC SPCA after he refused to hospitalize it.

Rufus was very sick, but instead of following medical advice, he gave the dog ivermectin, which continued to make it worse.

In his appeal to get the dog back, Leduc’s sister Toni also used pseudo-legal “sovereign citizen” arguments often touted by the freeman-on-the-land movement.

She’d argued the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act didn’t apply to them because Canada is a corporation and laws only apply to employees of that corporation.

Surprisingly, the argument didn’t go far, and Leduc didn’t get the dog back, and he was ordered to pay almost $2,000 in costs.

The Armstrong resident has been in legal trouble before when he was convicted of harassing wildlife after he poured water on a bear’s den in an effort to shoo it out before he shot it. The bear’s den was located in the middle of his woodlot, and Leduc was frustrated he wasn’t allowed to log it. He was fined $2,000.

Leduc is scheduled to be back in court next week.

The animal cruelty charge has not been proven in court.