Court of Appeal for Ontario

Citation: R. v. Marynissen, 2007 ONCA 821

Date: 2007-11-29

Docket: C44818

Judges: LASKIN, MOLDAVER and ROULEAU JJ.A.

Between:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN Respondent

and

LORENA MARYNISSEN Appellant

Counsel: Dean F. Embry for the appellant Lorna Bolton for the respondent

Heard: November 22, 2007

On appeal from the conviction entered on October 27, 2004 and the sentence imposed on January 11, 2005 by Justice Robert M. Thompson of the Superior Court of Justice, sitting with a jury.

APPEAL BOOK ENDORSEMENT

[1] We do not in any way minimize the seriousness of the appellant’s conduct or the seriousness of the victim’s injuries. However, the appellant was charged with and convicted, not of criminal negligence causing bodily injury, but of dangerous driving causing bodily injury, for which the Crown sought a maximum sentence of five years. In our view, the trial Crown’s position accords with a fit sentence and by exceeding it the trial judge imposed a sentence that was outside an acceptable range.

[2] Accordingly, we allow the sentence appeal and substitute a global sentence of five years, which we give effect to by reducing the sentence for dangerous driving from six years to four years.

[3] We also reduce the driving prohibition for the dangerous driving conviction from sixteen years to eleven years to run concurrently with the driving prohibition for the conviction for failing to remain.