Defence appeal form a sentence of 2 years and 8 months jail following a guilty plea to impaired driving casing death and bodily harm. Joint submission for 2 years jail overruled by trial judge.
Held: Appeal dismissed.
Joint submission was unfit. Appropriate sentence would have been in the range of 4-5 years if the Crown had appealed. “This Court has not set a narrow range of two to four years for impaired driving causing death or, for that matter, any specific range.” The joint submission was premised upon the incorrect assessment by counsel that the appropriate range was 2-4 years. Given the aggravating facts which included: a high level of impairment, and the traveling in the wrong lane on a highway, “a fit sentence here would be no less than four years. Recent authorities from other jurisdictions have seen fit to impose four and a half or five years where less egregious driving patterns were present.”
A. Hepner, Defence Counsel