COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO
RE:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Respondent) – and – BRIAN DURHAM (Appellant)
BEFORE:
MOLDAVER, FELDMAN and GILLESE JJ.A.
COUNSEL:
Timothy E. Breen
for the appellant
David Lepofsky
for the respondent
HEARD & ENDORSED:
May 24, 2006
On appeal from the dangerous offender designation imposed by Justice Ronald C. Sills of the Superior Court of Justice dated January 19, 2001.
A P P E A L B O O K E N D O R S E M E N T
1The trial judge gave clear and cogent reasons for declaring the appellant a dangerous offender and rejecting the alternate proposal that he should be declared a long-term offender. The trial judge reviewed the relevant evidence in considerable detail and with great care. He applied the correct legal principles in differentiating between the dangerous offender and long-term offender designation. In the end, he concluded that there was “no reasonable possibility of eventual control in the community of the risk presented by [the appellant]”. In so concluding, we are not persuaded that he applied a “zero” tolerance test or anything close to it. Based on this record, we are satisfied that the trial judge’s conclusion was eminently reasonable and we see no basis for interfering with it. Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed.