Following guilty pleas to thirteen counts of failing to comply with property standards and unsafe building orders relating to a rental apartment building, the court considered a joint submission on sentence.
Applying the Anthony-Cook public interest test in a regulatory sentencing context, the court accepted the proposed fines for eleven counts but rejected the proposed $75,000 fines for two counts involving dangerous balcony and parking garage conditions posing grave risk to life and permanent injury.
The court emphasized deterrence, denunciation, repeat offending, the corporation's broad economic activity, and the vulnerability of affected tenants.
Fines of $400,000 were substituted on the two unsafe-building counts, for a total fine of $950,000 plus victim fine surcharges and court administration fees.
