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A Supreme Court of Canada decision on Friday has clarified the factors that judges should account for when a defendant and victim are both Indigenous.
The landmark case, R. v. Cope, concerns Harry Arthur Cope, a Mi’kmaw man from Nova Scotia who pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner, a Mi’kmaw woman, in 2021.
The Supreme Court weighed in on a trial judge’s decision to sentence Cope to five years in prison and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal’s decision to reduce that sentence to three years.
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal’s ruling, which accounted for Cope’s mental illness and substance use.
“The sentencing judge should have linked the mental health factor to the offender’s moral blameworthiness on the aggravated assault offence, but failed to do so,” wrote Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin, writing for the majority of the judges. “The court of appeal was therefore correct to intervene and it arrived at a just and appropriate sentence.”
Four of nine judges sided with the Nova Scotia provincial court’s original ruling, which dismissed recommendations from community members who proposed no further jail time and opted for a treatment program instead.
Anne Crawford, an Iqaluit lawyer who handles family and domestic violence cases, said the Supreme Court judgement uplifts the role that Indigenous victims, their families and their community should play in criminal sentencing.
nunatsiaq.com
Supreme Court delivers landmark decision on Indigenous offenders and victims
Canada’s top court ruling upholds decision to reduce Mi’kmaw’s man sentenceA Supreme Court of Canada decision on Friday has clarified the factors that judges should account for when a defendant and victim are both Indigenous.
The landmark case, R. v. Cope, concerns Harry Arthur Cope, a Mi’kmaw man from Nova Scotia who pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner, a Mi’kmaw woman, in 2021.
The Supreme Court weighed in on a trial judge’s decision to sentence Cope to five years in prison and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal’s decision to reduce that sentence to three years.
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal’s ruling, which accounted for Cope’s mental illness and substance use.
“The sentencing judge should have linked the mental health factor to the offender’s moral blameworthiness on the aggravated assault offence, but failed to do so,” wrote Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin, writing for the majority of the judges. “The court of appeal was therefore correct to intervene and it arrived at a just and appropriate sentence.”
Four of nine judges sided with the Nova Scotia provincial court’s original ruling, which dismissed recommendations from community members who proposed no further jail time and opted for a treatment program instead.
Anne Crawford, an Iqaluit lawyer who handles family and domestic violence cases, said the Supreme Court judgement uplifts the role that Indigenous victims, their families and their community should play in criminal sentencing.
Supreme Court delivers landmark decision on Indigenous offenders and victims
Newspaper of record for Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec
nunatsiaq.com
