Court of Appeal for Ontario

Citation: R. v. Preston, 2010 ONCA 483

Date: 2010-07-06

Docket: C51430

Between:

Her Majesty The Queen Appellant

And

Jonathan Preston Respondent

Judges: Moldaver, Simmons and Juriansz JJ.A.

Counsel: Peter Scrutton, for the appellant David North, for the respondent

Heard and endorsed: July 5, 2010 On appeal from sentence imposed by Justice J. R. MacKinnon of the Superior Court of Justice, dated November 25, 2009.

APPEAL BOOK ENDORSEMENT

[1] With respect to the trial judge, we are satisfied that he erred in principle in finding that he was "constrained by the principle of parity" and thus had to impose the same sentence (7 years) on the respondent as had been imposed upon another participant who had co-operated with the authorities, pleaded guilty at an early stage, was younger than the respondent and had a considerably less significant criminal record.

[2] These were important distinguishing features that the trial judge effectively ignored in finding that he was bound by the principle of parity. As the trial judge himself stated, but for his belief that he was bound by the principle of parity, he would have imposed a sentence of ten to twelve years, which was the sentence the Crown was seeking and which the trial judge described as "appropriate".

[3] In these circumstances, we would grant leave to appeal, allow the appeal and increase the sentence to ten years, less the credit for time served allowed by the trial judge.