Sentencing for a mid-level trafficker convicted after trial of possessing significant quantities of fentanyl and cocaine for the purposes of trafficking, possessing a loaded prohibited handgun, resisting arrest, and possessing proceeds of crime.
The court held that trafficking fentanyl in a vulnerable Northern Ontario community, near an elementary school, while armed with a loaded concealed handgun, substantially increased both the gravity of the offences and the offender’s moral blameworthiness.
The court applied the Kienapple principle, imposed consecutive sentences for fentanyl trafficking and the firearm offence, and treated Charter breaches, anti-Black racism social context, traumatic childhood history, family separation consequences, and stringent bail and remand conditions as mitigating factors.
A global 12-year sentence was reduced to 10 years under the totality principle, with additional pre-sentence credit.
