Sentence handed down in machete case

From there, Judge Morris Baniak explained how he came to his decision.

He went over the youth’s psychological report which said the boy was difficult to predict, with a moderate to low ability to perform well in society and has a high risk to reoffend.

Baniak talked about the taxi driver, who was on the first week of his job when at attack took place. The man received 175 stiches and lost three teeth from the slash of the machete. He said the driver’s resilience and strength of character are impressive.

Before handing down his sentence he called the act “senseless, violent and inexplicable.”

The youth received 22 months, minus double time served.

He still has 18 months to go, spending six months in closed custody, in a youth institution, six months in open custody, a variation of an institution, and the last six months under supervision, in the community.

Crown prosecutor, Michael Pilon, is happy with the amount of time in the sentence — the Crown originally asked for two years — but he is not happy with the division of supervision for the youth.

“The structure he gave between secure, open and supervision is something we are going to have to consider possibly appealing as a result of the psych assessment and the information about his risk of reoffending,” he said.

“It caused some concerns absolutely, so we’ll have a look at everything back at our office and with our head office down in Regina and consider our options.”

Pilon said the main reason they want to keep the boy in closed supervision is “to keep him always supervised by somebody rather than giving him the option to be out where he can get himself into these high risk situations.”

He said the open custody allows him to go to school and counselling. With good behaviour he could be given day passes to spend with friends and family.

Russ McCloy, owner and operator of Checker Taxi, is not happy with the sentence.

He said the fact the boy was only charged with aggravated assault is bad enough.

“When you hit somebody with a 23-inch blade, you are not attempting to assault them you are attempting to harm them greatly,” he said.

McCloy also said he felt that people with the profession of taxi driver need more protection from the justice system since they put themselves in harm’s way daily.

“Generally those professions are the ones who face the people who do these types of things and maybe they need a little more protection, maybe those crimes need to be treated a little more seriously,” he said, adding the sentence is too lenient.

klavoie@panow.com

by Kellah Lavoie

Sentence handed down in machete case

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