A Sudbury man found guilty of Fentanyl trafficking and violating probation has received a significantly reduced sentence after a judge reviewed the Gladue report on the case.
Gladue reports look into the backgrounds of Indigenous people when they come into contact with the criminal justice system, and takes into account systemic racism and other factors when deciding on a sentence. It also looks for ways to use restorative justice, which is in line with First Nation traditions.
A person's background, such as history regarding residential schools, child welfare removal, physical or sexual abuse, underlying developmental or health issues, are included in the report.
In this case, the man was transporting Fentanyl patches from Toronto to Sudbury for two Toronto drug dealers. He was paid $250 for each shipment and did it to fund his own Fentanyl habit, as well as his addiction to cough syrup. The court transcript says he was sometimes beaten by the upper-level dealers for consuming Fentanyl intended for sale.
“In Toronto, a typical patch will be sold for $100-$200,” court transcripts of the trial said. “In Sudbury, the price is doubled. A gram of Fentanyl in Toronto sells for $240-$260. The same amount sells between $400 and $600 in Sudbury.”
The man was arrested in 2017, and was found guilty in February 2018, at which point the Gladue report was commissioned.
“All too often sentencing judges are faced with offenders who, because of their troubled and trauma filled backgrounds, have committed offences that are harmful to both the public and themselves,” the judge wrote. “Determining the right sentence that properly takes into account the moral responsibility of offenders who have suffered significant trauma, while also denouncing the harmful criminal conduct and deterring others from committing such offences, is not easy to accomplish and requires a very delicate balance of competing interests.”
In this case, the 28-year-old man is of Métis descent. He doesn't know his father and his mother was an addict and a sex trade worker. The Gladue report says his mother, who had been sexually abused and grew up in an alcoholic and violent home, told him to reject his heritage, that her own father believed “you should stick with white.”
While he was first CAS care when he was two years old, the man's mother had access visits, during which she would “continue to use drugs and engage in sexual acts in front of (her son) and his sister,” the court transcript says. “Moreover, some of her boyfriends were violent both physically and sexually. During access visits at CAS, (the man's) mother would bring beer in (the man's) bottle.”
He grew up in a variety of foster homes, where he suffered further abuse. He moved to a home where he was happy, but was falsely accused of setting a fire that destroyed the house and was abandoned again.
He told the sentencing circle convened for his case that he spent his childhood wishing for a family.
“There is note in the CAS file that in 2001 both (the man) and his sister asked their CAS worker to find a family to adopt them,” the transcript says.
He tried suicide after being moved to different foster homes – 12 times in all — and was diagnosed with both cerebral palsy and ADHD.
“Despite all this upheaval and trauma, by 2007 (he) appeared settled in a foster home and was starting to improve when he suddenly disappeared,” the transcript says. “When he was located, it was discovered that just prior to running away, (he) had run into his mother, who asked him for cocaine.”
By age 15, he was a drug addict, using Xanax, cough syrup and Fentanyl and funding his habit through drug-dealing. His prior convictions include stealing a baby carriage, drug possession and for domestic violence against the mother of his daughter in 2011.
Since his arrest, however, he has gotten off drugs and responded well to therapy, the transcript said.
“The vast majority of his improvement appears to have been taken place in the last six months of his incarceration after being placed in a unit for Indigenous persons and attending at a healing lodge in June 2018,” it said, adding there would significant changes after he went to the healing lodge and started engaging in programming.
He “is focused now on moving forward with his rehabilitation,” the transcript says. “He is ready to face the trauma from his past and work at staying away from drugs.”
He has hopes of becoming a fashion designer and wants to become someone his daughter can have a good relationship with.
“Having grown up without a father and an addicted and abusive mother, (he) understands the importance of developing this relationship,” the transcript says.
After reading the report, the Crown asked for a reduced sentence of six to seven years, while the defence sought two years.
In coming up with the sentence, the judge said the fact he confessed to what he did was a mitigating factor, as was the fact he made so little money from dealing compared to the people he worked for. She also took into consideration the facts of his childhood, that he was separated from his sister and abused in a variety of foster homes.
While stiff sentences for dealing a drug as deadly as Fentanyl are import for deterrence, in this case, the judge wrote that the man's background and personal progress since his arrest are also major factors.
“When I consider all these factors, even keeping in mind the primary objectives of deterrence and denunciation, I am satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist to impose a sentence outside the range of sentences normally imposed,” she wrote.
In the end, she sentenced him to 30 months in jail. With credit for time served, that amounts to five more months in prison, with another two years probation.
