Dan Johnson

Following a five-day trial, the offender was found guilty of trafficking cocaine and assault.

The court, in sentencing, balanced the paramount principles of general deterrence and denunciation for serious drug offences with the offender's significant rehabilitative potential and lack of prior criminal record.

The trafficking was characterized as persistent, full-time street-level dealing at the higher end of the sentencing range.

The court ultimately imposed a custodial sentence, rejecting a conditional sentence, and addressed arguments concerning systemic racism and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sentencing.

The offender pleaded guilty to robbery committed against a taxi driver.

The court imposed a sentence of 9.5 months imprisonment followed by two years probation, taking into account the offender's Indigenous background, systemic factors, mental health challenges, and the harsh conditions of pre-sentence custody, while balancing the serious nature of the offence, the vulnerability of the victim, and principles of denunciation and deterrence.