By Charlene Tebbutt

Community leaders weigh in on impact of drug abuse during sentencing of P.A. drug trafficker

Oct 23, 2018 | 5:00 PM

A man charged in connection with Prince Albert’s largest-ever drug seizure has been sentenced to nine years in jail, less time served in a case where various community leaders from northern Saskatchewan were asked to weigh in and give their thoughts on the impact of drug abuse and addictions on local families and children.

Impact statements from several area community leaders were requested in the case against Trevor Marcel McKay. McKay was sentenced last month in Prince Albert Provincial Court on charges of trafficking a controlled substance, possession of property obtained by crime and laundering the proceeds of crime.

McKay, 29, pleaded guilty to the charges. The facts in the case and Judge Steven Schiefner’s decision were included on a public legal information site.

The case goes back to August 2016, when a police search of a Prince Albert apartment turned up 11.26 kilograms of cocaine, cutting agents, equipment for cooking cocaine and packaging materials. Police testified during McKay’s trial the apartment was used as a “stash house” – solely for the purposes of cutting and packaging drugs – and that no furniture was in the room and no one appeared to be living there. The drug activity was brought to the attention of police by the apartment building manager.

Court heard the drugs were moved in and out of the building in large boxes of powdered drywall mix to be packaged and sold throughout the city and across northern Saskatchewan. The estimated value of the drugs found inside the apartment was between $780,000 and $1.5 million.

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Included in the court decision were comments from local community leaders, including Chief Austin Bear of the Muskoday First Nation.

“Witnessing a mother sign over her child tax credit cheque to the drug dealer for payment of her drugs is hurtful, when her children have no food in the fridge and the youngest is without Pampers,” Bear’s statement read. “The rates of children in care is rising significantly because parents can no longer provide the proper love and nurturing that their children deserve.”

Chief Jeremy Norman from the Flying Dust First Nation said there has been a marked increase in drug-related issues in his community.

“We have had Elders suffer from home invasions and assaults, children who are being abused and neglected, families suffering from financial burden, broken families, chronic illness and death,” Norman said.

In his statement to the court, Meadow Lake Mayor Gary Vidal said drug abuse and related crime and violence has caused fear amongst residents and business owners in the community and put a strain on local emergency and medical resources.

“The entire community suffers the consequences of a culture where crime and violence related to drug abuse become normalized,” Vidal said.

Schiefner said in his decision the drug operation was highly sophisticated, involving large volumes of mostly-pure cocaine.

“To maintain security, only a small group of accomplices went to the apartment and no drugs were used at or sold from that location,” Schiefner said. “Simply put, the operation was designed to be hidden in plain sight.”

Several other people were charged in connection with the drug investigation, but the Crown argued McKay was the leader of the group. McKay’s lawyer however, said his client was “a dupe” and likely wasn’t the one running the operation. Schiefner took into account significant Gladue factors in the case, including McKay’s childhood, which involved transiency, violence, addictions and relatives who attended residential schools. Schiefner noted McKay’s father “both taught him the drug trade and normalized the sale of drugs as a source of income.”

A co-accused in the case, Kelsey Bear pleaded guilty to similar charges in June and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
 

Charlene.tebbutt@jpbg.ca
On Twitter: @CharleneTebbutt