Julia De Vuono

The defendant, Sukhmanpreet Singh, pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm.

The court considered aggravating factors, including the victim's vulnerability (17 years old) and the nature of the assaults committed in concert with others, and mitigating factors such as the guilty plea, efforts to address drug addiction, remorse, and harsh pre-trial custody conditions.

The central issue was whether to impose a conditional discharge, as sought by the defence due to potential immigration consequences, or a conviction with time served, as sought by the Crown.

The court ultimately imposed a sentence of time served (6 months less 1 day) and 12 months probation, concluding that a discharge was not appropriate given the seriousness of the offence and the paramount need for denunciation and general deterrence in cases involving abuse of minors.

The court emphasized that immigration consequences, while relevant, should not dictate a sentence that is disproportionate to the gravity of the offence.

The defendant, Stephan Myers, was found guilty of human trafficking a vulnerable 18-year-old and possession of an illegal handgun.

The Crown sought a global sentence of ten years, while the defence requested 3.5 years imprisonment plus a conditional sentence.

The court conditionally stayed two counts based on the Kienapple principle.

The judge considered various aggravating factors, including the victim's vulnerability, the defendant's control, drug addiction, duration of trafficking, emotional manipulation, and the firearm.

Mitigating factors included the defendant's age, family support, rehabilitation efforts, and the impact of anti-Black racism on his background.

The court emphasized denunciation, deterrence, restraint, and rehabilitation.

The global sentence imposed was six years and eight months, comprising five years and two months for human trafficking and eighteen months consecutive for the firearm offence.

The offender was convicted of receiving material benefits from sexual services after selling cocaine to a sex worker and encouraging her to continue sex work to pay for the drugs.

The Crown sought a 3-year penitentiary sentence, while the defence sought a 12-month conditional sentence.

The court considered the unique facts, noting the offender was not a 'pimp' but a drug dealer, and weighed mitigating factors including the offender's rehabilitation, family support, and systemic factors related to anti-Black racism.

The court imposed a 17-month conditional sentence followed by 12 months of probation.

The Crown sought to admit a KGB statement from an alleged victim of human trafficking who had disappeared and was unavailable to testify.

The defence conceded necessity but disputed threshold reliability.

The court ruled the statement inadmissible, finding that the inability to cross-examine the declarant was a significant obstacle, particularly given her potential motive to fabricate, as she gave the statement while under arrest and her charges were dropped immediately afterward.

The court also found the corroborative evidence insufficient to establish substantive reliability.

Following a judge-alone criminal trial, the court convicted the accused on multiple counts arising from exploitation of one complainant in the sex trade, including procuring, receiving a financial benefit from sexual services, human trafficking, receiving a financial benefit from trafficking, assault, forcible confinement, choking, assault causing bodily harm, uttering threats, and sexual assault.

The court accepted the complainant's evidence as credible and reliable notwithstanding memory gaps associated with trauma, rejected the accused's testimony as incredible and unreliable, and applied the W.(D.) framework in assessing whether a reasonable doubt arose.

In interpreting the procuring and trafficking provisions, the court relied on appellate authority recognizing that control may be psychological, need not be constant or absolute, and may be inferred from directive behaviour, coercion, violence, financial control, and exploitation of vulnerability.

Counts relating to a second alleged victim were dismissed for insufficient evidence, and the withholding of documents count was dismissed at the Crown's request for lack of evidence.

In this omnibus Charter application arising from a human trafficking and sexual assault prosecution, the applicants challenged multiple search warrants, production orders, arrests, detentions, right to counsel breaches, delayed bail appearances, alleged racial bias, negligent investigation, and disclosure failures.

The court found several serious Charter breaches, including invalid judicial authorizations relating to one dwelling, one phone, and one production order, unreasonable manner of search at one residence, multiple right to counsel breaches, and unlawful delay in bringing two accused before a justice.

A stay of proceedings was granted to one applicant because cumulative and partly systemic misconduct would further prejudice the integrity of the justice system if the prosecution continued.

Another applicant obtained exclusion of his police statement and cellphone evidence under s. 24(2), while the remaining applications for a stay were dismissed.

The offender pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual interference contrary to section 151 of the Criminal Code.

The offences spanned approximately nine years and were committed against his biological daughter and step-daughter, with whom he held positions of trust and authority.

The abuse of the biological daughter occurred over an eight-year period between 1997 and 2004, involving progressively intrusive sexual acts including digital penetration, oral-genital contact, and partial vaginal penetration.

The abuse of the step-daughter occurred over a seven-month period in 2007-2008, involving sexual touching and exposure.

The court imposed a sentence of 56 months imprisonment (40 months for the abuse of the biological daughter and 16 months consecutive for the abuse of the step-daughter), along with ancillary orders including a lifetime sex offender information registration order, DNA order, and ten-year weapons prohibition.