sexual assault involving boys under the age of 16 (four counts)
Luke Everett Strimbold (born October 21, 1990) is a Canadian former politician who served as mayor of Burns Lake, British Columbia, from 2011 to 2016.[1] Elected at age 21, he was the youngest mayor in the province's history and the second-youngest in Canada.[2] He was also involved with the British Columbia Liberal Party as membership chair.[3] In 2019, he pleaded guilty to sexual offences involving minors and was sentenced to prison.[4]
Strimbold was born and raised in Burns Lake, British Columbia.[5] He was described as a "golden boy" for efforts to bridge relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.[6] Strimbold, a closeted gay man as a youth, experienced bullying. He resigned in 2016 to focus on education and career.[7]
Political career
Elected mayor at 21, Strimbold defeated incumbent Bernice Magee in 2011 and was re-elected in 2014.[8] He led community recovery after the 2012 Babine Forest Products sawmill explosion, securing funding for local revitalization projects and healthcare facilities.[9] Strimbold helped establish British Columbia's largest community forest, managed collaboratively with six local First Nations, the Village of Burns Lake, and the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako.[10] He supported the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013. He also served on British Columbia's Climate Leadership Team in 2015.[11]
Sexual assault conviction
In March 2018, Strimbold was charged with 24 counts of sexual assault and related offences involving six boys under 16, with some incidents during his mayoralty.[12] A direct indictment in August 2018 brought charges to 29.[13] In May 2019, he pleaded guilty to four counts, including sexual assault and sexual interference.[14] Offences involved supplying alcohol and abusing his authority, causing long-term harm to victims. The defence cited his own history of abuse. On December 4, 2019, Strimbold was sentenced to two years less a day, followed by two years’ probation, and 20 years on the national sex offender registry.[15] Community trust was widely reported as broken due to the leniency of the sentence.[16]
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