Lise Csele

The appellant, Alycia Sauvé, appealed her convictions and sentence for drug trafficking offences.

While the conviction appeal was abandoned, she sought a stay or reduction of her 18-month custodial sentence based on fresh evidence of significant post-sentencing rehabilitation.

The Court of Appeal admitted the fresh evidence and, with the Crown's consent to a stay, found it to be an exceptional case.

The court permanently stayed the remainder of the custodial portion of her sentence, while leaving the 18-month probation order and other ancillary orders unchanged, balancing the objectives of deterrence and denunciation with the appellant's remarkable rehabilitative progress.

The offender was convicted by a jury of three counts related to importing 198 grams of cocaine: possession for the purposes of trafficking, conspiracy to import, and conspiracy to possess for the purposes of trafficking.

Counsel for the offender sought a conditional sentence and challenged the constitutionality of provisions in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Criminal Code that preclude conditional sentences for these offences and set a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The Crown sought 2.5 years incarceration and opposed the constitutional challenges.

The court dismissed the constitutional challenges, finding that the exclusion of conditional sentences was a reasonable legislative choice and that the maximum sentence of life imprisonment was not unconstitutional.

Considering mitigating and aggravating factors, the court imposed a concurrent sentence of two years less a day on each count, with three days credit for pre-sentence custody.