Sixteen people found guilty of illegal protests at the Muskrat Falls project site in 2016 have been given suspended sentences for their actions.

But the ruling by Supreme Court Justice George Murphy has done little to appease the members of the Labrador Land Protectors (LLP) group, calling it “a sombre end to a long journey in a courtroom.”

In October of 2016, they were convicted of contempt of civil court for breaking an injunction that ordered people not to enter the project site, or block access to it.

“For all of us LLP, we have to live with the threat of the Nalcor Muskrat Falls hydro project upstream for life and the next generations. The threat of the North Spur instability, destruction to the river system, and methylmercury poisoning of the animals and food web that will eventually come to humans… all of this remains,” the group stated in a post on Facebook.

“The judge will never understand what that feels like. There is no reconciliation here.”

It brings to an end a four-year journey through the courts, as long as the 16 people each sign a two-year undertaking to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, and comply with all court orders for the next two years, or until the injunction is lifted.