Supreme Court
Decision Information
Decision information:
Abstract: Transcript of the reasons for sentence
Decision Content
R. v. Takazo, 2006 NWTSC 17 S-1-CR-2005000027
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
IN THE MATTER OF:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
- v -
KIERON PAUL TAKAZO
__________________________________________________________
Transcript of the Reasons for Sentence delivered by The
Honourable Justice V.A. Schuler, sitting in Yellowknife,
in the Northwest Territories, on the 12th day of April,
A.D. 2006.
__________________________________________________________
APPEARANCES:
Mr. S. Hinkley: Counsel for the Crown
Mr. J. Mahon: Counsel for the Accused
(Charge under s. 271 of the Criminal Code of Canada)
Ban on publication of complainant / witness pursuant to section 486 of the Criminal Code
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THE COURT: I will now sentence Mr. Takazo.
A jury found Mr. Kieron Takazo guilty of
sexual assault, which it is now my duty to
sentence him for.
On the night in question, the 18-year-old
victim was drinking at various places in Deline
with Kieron Takazo, whom she had known all her
life. Also with them was his common-law wife who
is the victim's cousin. The victim asked to stay
overnight at the Takazo residence. My
recollection of her evidence is that she did not
want to go home and disturb her own family. She
fell asleep in a room upstairs at the Takazo
residence and, at one point, woke up when
Mr. Takazo brought her a blanket. She fell
asleep again and then awoke to find him having
sex with her. She pushed him off and he left.
She soon went to her sister's home where the
police were called. The sister testified that
the victim cried throughout the time she was at
her home.
The Victim Impact Statement describes quite
eloquently the impact of this offence on the
victim. She describes in it emotions and effects
from the offence that are very similar to what
the Court hears from other victims in like
circumstances. She obviously considered the
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Victim Impact Statement carefully. And I note
that she does say that she still intends to
pursue her education, to pursue her normal life
despite what has happened to her; but as she says
in the statement, she has lost a lot and she
feels that she is now not the real her, that her
life has been interrupted. That is something
that I hope Mr. Takazo will think about. I often
wonder if the young men who commit this type of
crime ever think of the fact that what they do,
quite apart from the violation in the physical
sense, affects the victim's life forever, that it
will always be there, it will always be something
that she does not want to think about but cannot
forget. So it is something that lasts forever as
far as the victim is concerned.
I have to consider the aggravating and
mitigating factors in this case, and, first of
all, in my view, there really are no mitigating
factors. I do take into account that Mr. Takazo
did agree that certain evidence be admitted at
trial. But as I noted in the W.(K). case, and
this case is quite similar, when DNA evidence is
admitted as it was in this case, although that is
-- it certainly helped streamline the court
process, the witnesses who would testify to that
type of evidence are not normally the type of
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witnesses who are traumatized by testifying. So
it certainly does not have the impact that a
guilty plea would have where it is the victim who
then does not have to testify. On the other
hand, Mr. Takazo is not to be treated more
harshly simply because he exercised his right to
a jury trial.
It is aggravating that Mr. Takazo took
advantage of the victim's vulnerability as a
young woman asleep in his home. She was asleep
obviously. She had no chance of resisting him or
stopping him because she was not even aware of
what was happening at the beginning. And
certainly she was entitled to feel secure in her
cousin's home, especially, I would say, with the
cousin and the cousin's young child there. And,
again, I hope Mr. Takazo will think about the
fact that he did commit this crime while his
spouse was in the home and that his spouse had to
come to testify in court. My recollection, my
observation, was that was very difficult for her
to do.
Mr. Takazo is now 26 years old and so was 25
or 26 at the time of the offence. He is a young
aboriginal man from Deline, and he has been
living common-law with his spouse for five or six
years and they have a young daughter. He has
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worked seasonally with the local housing
association and was attending upgrading at Aurora
College in Deline so that he could go on to
qualify as a journeyman welder, and it is to his
credit that he has been making those efforts to
support himself and his family through education
and through employment.
The letter from his pre-trades instructor at
Aurora College speaks very highly of him and it
calls him responsible, motivated, and mature.
Also, the other letters from Mr. Takazo's family
and friends speak very highly of him as a family
member and as a contributing member of the
community. So, again, this is the kind of case
where I have to ask myself: Why and how does a
young man with these very good qualities commit a
crime like this - sexually assault a young girl
who is sleeping over in his house? And the
answer, at least from the point of view of people
who wrote the letters that have been filed -- and
I will refer to the letter from Margaret
McDonald. According to her, "the only barrier
that is preventing this highly intelligent,
energetic, caring and kind young man from taking
his rightful place in society is the alcohol."
And the other letters refer to alcohol as well.
The only way in which I would disagree with what
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they are saying is that it is not the alcohol
that is the barrier, it is Mr. Takazo's failure
to control himself, his failure to stop himself
from drinking.
It is probably one of the most difficult and
perhaps the saddest part of my job that I see so
many young aboriginal men come before me to be
sentenced for very serious crimes which probably
would never have happened if only they had
controlled the amount of alcohol they drank or
just had not drank any alcohol at all.
From the evidence, this was a few minutes on
one night, and now the victim's life has changed
forever, Mr. Takazo's life is being changed
because he is looking at a lengthy term of
incarceration, and obviously his family's life
has changed as well because he is not going to be
there for some time to help them as they have
described in the letters that he has done in the
past. So it seems to me that all of these people
recognize that Mr. Takazo has a problem with
alcohol, and Mr. Takazo has to do something about
it, because otherwise all of the good things that
he has done will just get lost in this haze of
alcohol.
Mr. Takazo does have a lengthy criminal
record. There are no sexual offences on it and
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most of it consists of unrelated property
offences, but there are two assaults in 1998 and
1999 that are related although they are somewhat
dated, and I do take into account that Mr. Takazo
has been sentenced to several terms of
incarceration, albeit relatively short ones. The
real significance, I think, of the record is that
I have -- I have no real doubt that alcohol was
involved in a number of those offences. So
Mr. Takazo knows what happens when he drinks and
he knows that he does things when he drinks that
are against the law, and, again, that is
something that only he can control.
The crime of sexual assault, it is trite to
say but it is far too common in the Northwest
Territories, and sexual assault on a victim who
is defenceless - in other words, sleeping or
passed out - is one of the most common types of
sexual assault that comes before this court.
That issue was made very clear in the Bird case
that has been filed and that I have reviewed.
And as a result of all that, as has been said
over and over again, denunciation of the offence
and deterring others who would commit this type
of offence are the most important considerations
in sentencing for sexual assault.
I have considered the submissions of counsel
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about the length of sentence that should be
imposed. There is remand time to be taken into
account, which counsel have advised is 110 days,
relevant to this offence or this charge, and
Crown counsel agrees that that amount should be
credited on a two-for-one basis. Crown counsel
asks me to impose -- or to consider that a term
of three years would be appropriate and then to
reduce that to two and a half years because of
the remand time. Defence counsel suggests that I
should start at two and a half years and then
reduce that to two years less a day because of
the remand time and, also, in order to ensure
that the accused, Mr. Takazo, serves his sentence
in the Northwest Territories. Both counsel seem
to be agreed that the range is somewhere around
three years, although defence counsel going a
little bit lower than that and Crown counsel
going a little bit higher. In any event, the
three-year range certainly originated from the
Sandercock case in Alberta, which, as I recall,
said that that sentence would be appropriate for
someone with no criminal record. As I have said,
Mr. Takazo does have a criminal record. I have
already made comments about it. Sadly, it is not
a record that is particularly unusual for young
men of his age in the Northwest Territories.
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I do take into account, as defence counsel
urged me to, that Mr. Takazo is aboriginal; but I
note that there are no systemic or background
factors that have been presented that would
explain why he committed this crime. In other
words, how he has ended up before the Court.
And, again, it seems to me that the only real
explanation is that he simply does not control
his drinking and did not control his drinking on
this occasion and that he likely would not have
committed this crime if he had been sober given
all the good things that his family and friends
have to say about him. At the same time, and
although I do take into account that Mr. Takazo
is aboriginal, I do not see that in itself as a
reason to sentence him differently than I would
if he was not aboriginal; but I also note that
this type of offence is far too prevalent,
especially in the smaller communities in the
Northwest Territories, and the sentence that I
impose has to be one that should protect, whether
it is by aiming directly at Mr. Takazo and
discouraging him from committing this type of
offence again or discouraging others from
committing this type of offence. It does have to
be aimed at protecting young women, all women in
the communities, aboriginal and non-aboriginal.
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What I consider in the end is that where
Mr. Takazo serves his sentence is something that
should be left up to the correctional authorities
and not -- in this case, there are not grounds,
in my view, to change what I think would
otherwise be a fit sentence simply to ensure that
he stays in the Northwest Territories.
Would you stand, please, Mr. Takazo.
In all the circumstances, in my view, a
sentence of three years is appropriate in this
case. I am going to reduce it by giving you
credit for the remand time and, in doing that,
reducing it to 29 months in jail. The warrant
will be endorsed with the Court's recommendation
that you be permitted to serve your sentence in
the Northwest Territories; but it will be up to
the correctional authorities, in the end, whether
they can or will do that. There will be a DNA
order as it is mandatory with the sexual assault
offence. There will be a firearm prohibition
order in the usual terms for a period of ten
years. Actually, the order will start today and
it will continue for ten years following your
release from imprisonment. But because of the
evidence that you do hunt for the purposes of
obtaining food, under Section 113, I will
authorize -- I do authorize the authorities
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referred to therein to issue the necessary
permits and licences to you so that you can hunt
for sustenance. And there has not been any
argument made that registration under the Sex
Offender Information Registration Act would not
be appropriate in this case and, accordingly, I
order that Mr. Takazo register and report under
that act for the 20-year period required for this
offence. The victim of crime surcharge will also
be waived in the circumstances.
You can have a seat, Mr. Takazo.
Is there anything --
MR. MAHON: Your Honour, I do have a copy
of the DNA order for the Court.
THE COURT: All right.
MR. MAHON: It's been endorsed with my
consent as to the form and content. Your Honour,
that was done in anticipation of the order.
THE COURT: That is fine. I will sign it
when we close court and the clerk can distribute
it. The other orders, then, you will file, I
take it?
MR. HINKLEY: Yes, Your Honour. I'll file
the firearms prohibition in due course. I
believe the SOIRA order is drafted by court
staff, but I will consult with the clerk after
court closes to be sure.
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THE COURT: All right.
MR. MAHON Those are all my matters, Your
Honour. Thank you.
THE COURT: I want to thank you both very
much for your conduct of the case. I thought the
trial went very well, and -- in terms of the way
it was conducted. And we will close court then.
.................................
Certified Pursuant to Rule 723
of the Rules of Court
Jane Romanowich, CSR(A), RPR
Court Reporter
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