ONTARIO COURT OF JUSTICE
CITATION: R. v. Mercier, 2026 ONCJ 502
DATE: August 21, 2026
BETWEEN:
HIS MAJESTY THE KING
— AND —
KERRIE ANN MERCIER
Before Justice Angela L. McLeod
Guilty plea February 24, 2026
Sentencing hearing June 23, 2026
Ms. Lawson.......................................................................................... counsel for the Crown
Ms. Cressati.................................................................................... counsel for the Applicant
OVERVIEW
[1] Ms. Mercier plead guilty to a single count of possession for the purpose of trafficking, contrary to s. 5(2) of the CDSA.
[2] A search warrant was executed on July 5, 2024 and resulted in the seizure of 63.9 grams of fentanyl and 0.9 grams of crack cocaine. Indicia of trafficking including scales, debt lists, cutting agent and cell phones.
[3] The fentanyl was cut with benzodiazepine, for which Narcan does not work. It is extremely dangerous. The Crown filed a letter from the Ministry of Health identifying this substance as a cause of opioid toxicity death in 63% of cases in 2021 and 41% of cases in 2022.
[4] There were also indicia of personal use.
[5] She was on release for possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking at the time of her arrest. Those allegations involved 20 grams of Fentanyl. Those charges were assessed by the Federal Crown and ultimately withdrawn.
[6] The matter was adjourned for the authoring of a PSR report, filed as Exhibit #2.
[7] As of today’s date, Ms. Mercier has accrued 143 days of presentence custody (having been held for bail, then released, then re-incarcerated). Enhanced credit to be deducted from the sentence is 215 days.
[8] She was reincarcerated due to an arrest for an allegation of breach of her release order by possessing identification not in her own name and using stolen credit cards. Those charges remain outstanding.
POSITION OF THE PARTIES
[9] The Federal Crown seeks a 5-year penitentiary sentence, a s. 109 order for 10 years, a DNA order and a forfeiture order.
[10] Defence seeks a conditional sentence of 2 years less a day and argues that the trafficking is subsistence based.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE OFFENDER
[11] Ms. Mercier is 43 years of age. She is single and has 3 daughters, none of whom live with her.
[12] She was raised in a home with domestic violence and moved out on her own at the age of 13.
[13] Ms. Mercier has a criminal record, filed as Exhibit #1, and includes convictions for property offences, crimes of violence, drug offences, and eight convictions for offences against the administration of justice. The convictions begin in 2006.
[14] She had maintained sobriety for approximately 6 years, then relapsed and returned to use in 2021, resulting in steady difficulties with the law thereafter.
[15] She has had a long life of significant addiction, starting with alcohol and marijuana at the ages of 8 and 9 years old. She is involved in in the methadone program while in custody.
[16] She wishes to move to a new community and live with her sister upon release. She has not articulated any plan to address her addiction issues nor identified any other supports. It should be noted that in the PSR she advised that her plan was to live with her mother upon release. Her mother noted that she has lived with her several times in the past with failed results and would find it hard to trust her daughter.
IS A CONDITIONAL SENTENCE AVAILABLE AND APPROPRIATE?
[17] Ms. Mercier received a conditional supervision order in 2021. Her supervisor noted that her reporting was not good and she failed to report numerous times. She had minimal engagement with the supervisor. It was assessed that she was “at an elevated risk to reoffend”.
[18] Ms. Mercier has a 35-year history of drug and alcohol use and misuse. She has no history of treatment or rehabilitation. She self reports that in all that time, she managed a 6-year period of sobriety. She has been in the throes of her addiction consistently since 2021 and as a result has consistently been in trouble with the law.
[19] She was on release for allegations of a similar nature at the time of her arrest. She has been arrested and reincarcerated while on release for these charges.
[20] She has no plan for treatment or rehabilitation while in the community and her plan for residency is fluid, at best.
[21] Were the appropriate sentence to be less than 2 years, a conditional sentence order would not be appropriate.
RANGE OF SENTENCE
[22] The Crown referenced R. v Boose, 2023 ONCA 494, R. v. Mc McCue, 2022 ONCJ 118 and R. v. Parranto, 2021 SCC 46.
[23] Sentences in those cases for possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking ranged from 2.5 years to 6.5 years
[24] Mc Cue, supra, a decision of this court, referenced the matter of R. v. Lynch, 2022 ONCA 109:
39Most recently, the Ontario Court of Appeal, in R. v. Lynch, 2022 ONCA 109, addressed the range for Fentanyl sentencing. The Crown appealed a 4-year sentence and the Court ultimately increased the sentence to 6 years.
40Justice Paciocco noted that the range for mid-level traffickers of cocaine is 5 to 8 years (paragraph 14). Fentanyl is a more dangerous drug than cocaine (paragraph 14). He noted that “[i]t is a well-established principle that drugs vary in the degree of danger that they represent to those who consume them. Consequently, the more dangerous the drug being trafficked, the higher the penalty that will be imposed. Fentanyl is now known to be a much more dangerous drug than almost any other.” (paragraph 15).
41Justice Paciocco noted that “moral culpability rises with the risk of serious harm the trafficker is prepared to expose others to.” He continued in paragraph 17:
There is good reason for this. The problems that dangerous drugs pose for our society are well known. They involved drug addiction, adverse health consequences and, unfortunately all too often, death. Further, drugs are often sold to already vulnerable people thereby exacerbating their difficult circumstances. Still further, there are the indirect costs to society through increased health care expense, increased demands on the health care system, increases in robberies or other forms of criminal activity, and increases in violence. Simply put, the greater those risks are when a particular drug is being trafficked, the greater the offender’s culpability or moral blameworthiness for choosing to traffic in that drug.
42Justice Paciocco underscored the court’s earlier decision in R. v. Loor, 2017 ONCA 696, at para. 50, “Generally, offenders – even first offenders – who traffic significant amounts of fentanyl should expect to receive significant penitentiary sentences.”
2022 ONCJ 118 (CanLII
FINDINGS
[25] I find Ms. Mercier to be a mid level, addicted trafficker.
[26] I find her guilty plea to be mitigating on sentence.
[27] I find the following to be aggravating on sentence:
(1) The quantity of the drug.
(2) The criminal record.
(3) The fact that she was on release at the time for similar offences.
(4) The fact that the cutting agent used was so dangerous.
[28] I find her moral culpability to be high.
CONCLUSION
[29] The appropriate sentence is 5 years custody, a DNA order, a s. 109 order, and a forfeiture order.
[30] Considering the presentence custody, the total days to be served is 1610.
Released: August 21, 2026.
Signed: Justice Angela L. McLeod