Dr. J. Paul Federoff

A young person pleaded guilty to sexual assault and incest committed against his two sisters between 1991 and 1997.

The Crown sought 18 months secure custody and 6 months open custody followed by probation.

The defence sought probation and community service.

The court imposed a two-year probation sentence to commence on January 2, 2023, after the completion of the accused's adult penitentiary sentence.

The court applied the principles of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, emphasizing rehabilitation and reintegration, and considered the totality principle given that any youth custody would be served consecutively to an existing adult sentence.

The Crown applied for a dangerous offender/long-term offender assessment under s. 752.1 of the Criminal Code and sought to designate Dr. Philip Klassen as the assessor.

Defence counsel opposed this designation, proposing alternative psychiatrists.

The court held that while the accused has a role in the expert designation, the court should defer to the Crown's choice absent cogent and compelling reasons indicating the Crown's choice is inappropriate, such as lack of qualifications, bias, or unavailability.

The court found no such reasons to reject Dr. Klassen and rejected the defence's proposals due to potential bias (treating psychiatrist) and unavailability.

Dr. Klassen was designated.

Following trial convictions for sexual assault-related offences against a child, the court imposed sentence with primary emphasis on denunciation, deterrence, and separation from society under sections 718 and 718.01 of the Criminal Code.

The court found numerous aggravating factors, including repeated abuse over years, abuse of parental trust, use of a weapon, and attempts to silence the victim with money, while identifying few mitigating factors.

The court also treated lack of insight and poor response to prior programming as relevant to rehabilitation prospects, without treating denial of guilt as an aggravating factor.

A global penitentiary sentence of six years was imposed, with 2:1 credit for pre-sentence custody for charges predating February 22, 2010.

Ancillary lifetime orders were made for weapons prohibition, DNA collection, sex offender registration, and child-contact restrictions, along with no-contact orders during custody and post-release.