Defence appeal from sentence of 10.5 years for numerous offences including kidnapping, break & enter and commit robbery, theft of a vehicle, and firearms offences. Home occupants were beaten, threatened with a shotgun, and forced into a vehicle and driven some distance away.
Held: Appeal allowed; sentence reduced by 1.5 years to 9 years.
Court reviewed distinctions between sentencing factors, concepts, objectives, principles, and values. Here, considering in particular the principles of proportionality and restraint, sentencing judge did not appear to give meaningful reductions for the mitigating Gladue factors and the lack of planning or sophistication she discussed. “If one takes the ultimate total sentence imposed on the appellant of imprisonment for 10.5 years and takes account of notional amounts to reflect discounts that would emanate from the lack of planning and the Gladue factors, the effect is, in our view, an excessive sentence”. Wakeling, JA dissented.
A. Millman – Defence Counsel