Case information

Criminal law — Sentencing — Considerations — Applicant stealing famous portrait photograph from hotel, replacing it with forgery and selling original through auction house — Applicant pleading guilty to theft over $5000, forgery, and possession of stolen property over $5000 for the purpose of trafficking — Judge sentencing applicant to period of incarceration of two years less a day — Court of Appeal finding sentencing judge had not committed any errors in principle and sentence was not demonstrably unfit — Whether it is appropriate to rely on international caselaw to establish range of sentence — What trial judges must do to properly consider and reject a conditional sentence order in accordance with R. v. Proulx, 2000 SCC 5.

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.

Mr. Wood stole a famous portrait photograph of Winston Churchill from an Ottawa hotel, replaced it with a forgery and sold the original through an auction house in England. He pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000, forgery, and possession of stolen property over $5,000 for the purpose of trafficking. The sentencing judge held that the relevant Canadian and international jurisprudence provided support for a penitentiary sentence for the theft of culturally significant works, and Mr. Wood was sentenced to incarceration of two years less a day. The sentence was upheld on appeal by the majority of the Court of Appeal; the dissenting judge would have allowed the appeal and substituted a conditional sentence of two years less a day.