What is the appropriate penalty for contempt of court in civil contempt?

The motion judge in this case did not make a finding of criminal contempt. The choice of appropriate penalty for contempt must recognize an important distinction between civil and criminal contempt: the purpose of a sentence for criminal contempt is punishment, whereas the purpose of a sentence for civil contempt is coercive or persuasive, designed to enforce the rights of a private party: see Poje v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 1953 CanLII 34 (SCC), [1953] 1 S.C.R. 516, [1953] S.C.J. No. 25, at p. 517 S.C.R. However, I would not place significant weight on this differential purpose in reviewing the fitness of the sentences imposed by the motion judge for civil contempt. As appellants' counsel acknowledged at the sentencing hearing, the nature of the appellants' conduct in repeatedly disobeying the interim and interlocutory [page10 ]injunctions came extremely close to criminal contempt and may potentially have justified such a finding by the motion judge.