Christopher Dobson

An Indigenous offender was sentenced for three counts of aggravated assault, breach of recognizance, and assault.

The offender stabbed three men without provocation while significantly intoxicated and in breach of a bail condition prohibiting weapon possession, and subsequently assaulted a nurse during detention processing.

The court applied Gladue principles, considering the offender's intergenerational trauma stemming from residential schools, post-traumatic stress disorder, and lack of prior criminal record.

The court imposed a sentence of time served (388 days on a 1.5-1 basis) plus three years of probation, rejecting the Crown's request for 4-6 years imprisonment and the defence request for 6 months time served.

The accused were charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after police executed a search warrant at a residence.

Cocaine was found in a bedroom and the kitchen.

The Crown relied on circumstantial evidence to prove constructive or joint possession.

The court found that the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the first accused occupied the bedroom or that the second accused had a measure of control over the drugs found in the common kitchen area.

Both accused were acquitted.

The defendants pleaded guilty to multiple serious offences involving child pornography, sexual abuse of a two-year-old child, and related crimes.

The Crown sought 12 years imprisonment, while defence counsel argued for 4-5 years.

The court imposed a total sentence of 7 years, with credit for 14 months of pre-trial custody at time and a half (21 months), resulting in a net sentence of 5 years and 3 months.

The judgment emphasizes the principles of denunciation and deterrence in child sexual abuse cases while maintaining proportionality to the offenders' degree of responsibility.

The defendants brought motions for security for costs against the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs sought leave to file a supplementary affidavit regarding their alleged impecuniosity, which was served six months after the deadline set by a court-ordered timetable.

The court denied leave, finding that plaintiffs' counsel failed to provide a reasonable, good faith explanation for the delay and had ignored the court's explicit direction to research the evidentiary requirements for impecuniosity before drafting the initial materials.

The accused pleaded guilty to making available child pornography, two counts of surreptitiously observing and recording a person who could reasonably expect to be nude, accessing child pornography, and possessing child pornography.

The offences occurred between January 1, 2008 and December 2, 2011.

The accused had accumulated thousands of images and videos of child pornography, including images depicting prepubescent children engaged in sexual acts.

The accused also secretly recorded his thirteen-year-old nephew in a bedroom and bathroom.

The Crown sought a three-year penitentiary sentence, while the defence sought twelve to eighteen months.

The court imposed a twenty-three-month jail sentence followed by three years probation, with ancillary orders including SOIRA registration, DNA order, and a prohibition order under section 161 of the Criminal Code.