Gary Chayko

The offender pled guilty to aggravated assault against his intimate partner and assault against her young son and a doctor.

The unprovoked, drug-induced attack left the partner with severe, permanent brain damage, requiring full-time care for the rest of her life.

The court considered the profound impact on the victims, the children who witnessed the attack, and the Akwesasne community.

Finding numerous aggravating factors and acknowledging the extreme gravity of the offence, the court imposed the maximum sentence of 14 years for the aggravated assault, plus a consecutive one-year sentence for the assault on the child.

The appellant, a domestic traveler residing on Cornwall Island, appealed his conviction for hindering an officer and evading compliance under the Customs Act after failing to attend a secondary inspection at a mixed-traffic corridor border crossing.

The appellant argued the primary border services officer lacked reasonable grounds to suspect a contravention of the Act when making the referral based solely on an automated license plate 'lookout'.

The Superior Court of Justice dismissed the appeal, holding that the threshold for a search under s. 99(1)(f) of the Customs Act does not apply to a mere referral to secondary inspection, which is a routine part of the screening process.

The appellants appealed their convictions for assault causing bodily harm, arguing that the trial judge's verdict was unreasonable, that he erred in his assessment of eyewitness identification evidence, gave insufficient reasons, improperly relied on post-offence conduct, and failed to consider self-defence.

The Superior Court of Justice dismissed the appeal, finding that the trial judge's conclusions were reasonably supported by the evidence of independent eyewitnesses who observed the group assault.

The court held that the trial judge made no palpable and overriding errors in his credibility findings, properly applied the law regarding parties to an offence, and correctly assessed the post-offence conduct of fleeing the scene.