Case information

None.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Whether probation order can be added to sentence of imprisonment where length of sentence reduced to less than two years because account taken of time spent by accused in preventive detention - Sections 719 and 731 of Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46.

On February 20, 2006, the Court of Québec convicted the Respondent of death threats, assault, procuring, possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose and trafficking in cocaine. At the sentencing hearing on February 24, 2006, the Respondent also pleaded guilty to several counts relating to the making of false documents. In its decision, the Court of Québec referred to many aggravating factors that, in its view, argued in favour of a federal prison term. It considered the sentences imposed in similar cases and the applicable principles, particularly proportionality. With regard to the counts on which the Respondent had been convicted, the court found that a term of imprisonment of 46 months was justified. With regard to the other offences to which the Respondent had pleaded guilty, the court imposed a consecutive sentence of 8 months’ imprisonment. Taking account of the Respondent’s preventive detention, the court then found that the sentence would have to be 18 months, which allowed it to add a three-year probation period. A motion for leave to appeal the sentence was made to the Court of Appeal, which allowed the motion and allowed the appeal for the sole purpose of setting aside the probation order. In its opinion, [translation] “[t]he trial judge expressly took account of the sum of the sentences imposed in each case to arrive at a total of 54 months, from which he subtracted the time spent in interim detention (18 months x 2 = 36 months), and “[i]n these circumstances, the judge could not add probation under s. 731(1)(b) Cr.C.”