Mark Ertel

The offender pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm knowing its possession is unauthorized and possession of a firearm contrary to a prohibition order.

The offences involved the offender handling a restricted handgun in a commercial office while subject to two prior lifetime weapons prohibitions.

The Crown sought a total sentence of 3 years less pre-sentence custody, while the defence sought an 18-month conditional sentence.

The court found the offences fell within the true crime end of the spectrum, emphasizing denunciation and deterrence given the offender's recidivism and disregard for court orders.

The court imposed a sentence of 2 years for the unauthorized possession and a consecutive 6 months for the breach of the prohibition order, less 3 months credit for pre-sentence custody, resulting in 2 years and 3 months remaining to serve.

Sentencing for possession of child pornography following a guilty plea.

The offender possessed 276 unique images depicting very young children, including infants and toddlers, in highly intrusive and violent sexualized abuse, and had sent one image to an adult companion with a message expressing a desire to replicate the conduct.

The court held that it was unnecessary and potentially revictimizing for the sentencing judge to view a sample of the images where the facts were undisputed and a detailed police categorization report had been filed.

Applying the governing sentencing principles for child pornography offences and the conditional sentence framework, the court found that denunciation and deterrence predominated and that the offender's lack of insight made a community sentence inappropriate.

A sentence of 400 days' custody, followed by 24 months' probation and ancillary orders, was imposed.