Decision Content
R v Tetso, 2018 NWTSC 36 S-1-CR-2017-000166
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
IN THE MATTER OF:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
- v -
JONATHAN TETSO
_________________________________________________________ Transcript of the Reasons for Sentence delivered by The Honourable Justice L.A. Charbonneau, sitting in Deline, in the Northwest Territories, on the 5th day of July, 2018.
_________________________________________________________
APPEARANCES:
Ms. A. Piché: Counsel for the Crown
Ms. M. Zimmer: Counsel for the Crown
Mr. C. Davison: Counsel for the Accused
(Charges under s.236(b) of the Criminal Code)
1 THE COURT: Jonathan Tetso has pled
2 guilty to a charge of manslaughter arising from
3 the death of his mother, Irene Tetso, on
4 December 23rd, 2016. Yesterday, I heard about
5 the circumstances that led to Ms. Tetso's death.
6 I heard about the impact that these tragic events
7 had on this family and on other people in this
8 community. Now, what I have to do is impose a
9 sentence on him for that offence.
10 I know that he has already
11 received a very harsh punishment. I know that he
12 has to live the rest of his life with what he has
13 done. From everything that I have heard and read
14 since we arrived here yesterday, I know that he
15 knows how much pain he has caused his family and
16 his community, and it is very obvious to me that
17 he is in enormous pain himself.
18 To the extent that sentencing,
19 in part, is to hold people accountable for their
20 actions, I am very aware that no sentence that I
21 impose will punish Mr. Tetso more than he is
22 already being punished living every day of his
23 life knowing what he has done, especially since
24 he does not remember doing it.
25 Sentencing is part of holding
26 him accountable, and it must take into account
27 the seriousness of what he did. That seriousness
1 goes without saying because a life was lost. A
2 valuable loved member of this community was lost.
3 That does not mean that there cannot be
4 forgiveness, and many people spoke about
5 forgiveness yesterday. But it does not remove
6 the need for the Court to do its duty and impose
7 sentence.
8 The objectives of that
9 sentence include denouncing what happened,
10 discourage others from behaving in this way.
11 This includes, in many ways, discouraging the
12 behaviour that leads to these tragedies, the
13 substance abuse that leads to these tragic
14 consequences. This was a particularly awful and
15 terrible event, but I can tell you that as
16 extreme as it is, it is just one example of the
17 many terrible, awful things what happen as a
18 result of substance abuse in many communities of
19 the Northwest Territories.
20 The lawyers have filed
21 sentencing decisions on other manslaughter cases
22 to help me decide what to do in this case.
23 Alcohol was part of every single one of those
24 cases. Several of them were cases where an
25 intoxicated person killed someone they loved. A
26 spouse, a friend, a nephew, a brother even. For
27 each of these cases, there were families broken
1 with sadness over what happened, and much, much
2 said in each of these hearings about the harm
3 that alcohol and abuse of other substances does.
4 I was the judge on some of
5 those cases. I remember pain on the faces of
6 family members and community members who were
7 there at those sentencing hearings. The same
8 pain I have seen today that I saw yesterday.
9 Today, I ask myself the same question that I ask
10 myself every time: Could this be a turning
11 point? Hopefully, it will be a turning point for
12 Mr. Tetso. I have a lot of hope that it will be.
13 But could it be a turning
14 point for others? Others who are also hurting
15 and turning to alcohol to numb that pain. Could
16 it be that this awful event triggers some real
17 change? Obviously, this is a very strong, united
18 community. I see that today. Could it be that
19 this is where things start to change for others?
20 And this is what I hope.
21 It comes through very clearly
22 in the presentence report that I read, and some
23 of the things that I heard yesterday, that many
24 people in this community know the harm that the
25 use of alcohol causes and that addressing that is
26 the first step. Then, addressing all the pain
27 and anger that people live with and is sometimes
1 the reason they drink is the next step.
2 There is much healing that
3 needs to happen, and it will not happen with
4 alcohol or drugs. Alcohol or drugs may numb some
5 of the pain for a short time, but it almost
6 always leads to more pain and more problems. I
7 make those comments humbly knowing that there is
8 a lot that I do not know about this community and
9 about this family, and I know that the solutions
10 will not come from outsiders such as myself. I
11 just hope that this family and this community can
12 stand together, as you are all here today, and
13 work together to find a path, a way to help
14 people to heal from those awful things that have
15 happened in the past. So that other families do
16 not have to go through what this family has to go
17 through now.
18 Sentencing is never an easy
19 decision because it requires balancing a lot of
20 different things. In deciding on sentencing, the
21 judge has to take into account what the person
22 did, the circumstances of that person, and some
23 legal principles. As far as the circumstances of
24 what happened, those were read into the record
25 yesterday, and I know those are painful things to
26 have to hear about, so I am not going to repeat
27 all the details that were read into court
1 yesterday.
2
Mr. Tetso does not remember
3 these events, and there was no witness to what
4 happened between him and his mother. So much
5 remains unknown. What we know, and I have to
6 refer to some of these details to put the rest of
7 what I say in context, what we know is that
8 Mr. Tetso got intoxicated that day. He drank in
9 the afternoon, and he drank again after work. He
10 got into an argument with his friend Connie and
11 with his nephew Christian. They ended up at
12 Irene Tetso's house. There was more arguing
13 there, and she asked them to leave.
14 Mr. Tetso was hitting
15 furniture, and at one point, he pushed Connie,
16 and she left. Christian then arrived at
17 Irene Tetso's house. He was coming to check on
18 her. He got into an argument with Mr. Tetso, and
19 Mr. Tetso actually attacked him. Christian
20 thinks he was hit with a frying pan, but whatever
21 it was, after being hit, he was bleeding from the
22 head. So when he returned home, his mother took
23 him to the health centre.
24 No one knows what happened
25 next between Mr. Tetso and his mother. But
26 during the evening, there was some sort of an
27 altercation. And by 11 p.m., when Christian went
1 back to the house to check on her, she was dead.
2 The house was in chaos. One of the strange
3 aspects of this case that remains unexplained was
4 that there was red paint spilled everywhere in
5 the house, and there was paint both on Mr. Tetso
6 and on his mother. Without going into more
7 detail, it was obvious from the state of the
8 house, and things that were observed, that there
9 had been a fight of some duration there.
10 Some of the injuries found on
11 Ms. Tetso, although none of them were found to be
12 the cause of death, were caused by a sharp
13 object. Knives were found in the house, and
14 there was also blood found on various locations.
15 The conclusions of the doctors
16 who examined Ms. Tetso's body was that her death
17 was caused by a combination of things, which
18 included the fact that she was sick. She
19 suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary
20 disease, which is a serious respiratory disease.
21 Another factor was that she, herself, had
22 consumed a lot of alcohol that night. A third
23 factor were the injuries that were inflicted by
24 her son.
25 Doctors could not quantify in
26 which proportion each of these causes contributed
27 to her death, but they did conclude that the
1 injuries inflicted by Mr. Tetso were a
2 significant contributing cause. In simple terms
3 what that means is that her death was
4 sufficiently connected to Mr. Tetso's actions to
5 make him guilty under the criminal law of having
6 caused her death unlawfully.
7 Turning to Mr. Tetso's
8 circumstances, they do have to be taken into
9 account, and in this case, I have the benefit of
10 the very detailed presentence report that gives
11 me a lot of information about Mr. Tetso,
12 although, I, of course, have never met him. That
13 report has been very helpful to me. I thank its
14 author.
15 I do want to say that it also
16 has been extremely helpful for me to read and
17 hear the letters of support and the victim impact
18 statements that were prepared, as well as to
19 listen to what Mr. Modeste had to say when he
20 spoke yesterday. I am very grateful to those who
21 had the courage to share their knowledge and
22 experiences of Mr. Tetso with me at this
23 difficult time, and I am grateful to
24 Marlene Kenny for having allowed me to see some
25 of the family photos that she shared.
26 Judges know when they sentence
27 a person for a crime that there is a lot more to
1 the person than the crime they committed. We
2 know that we often hear about a snapshot, we hear
3 about one part, sometimes a few parts of the
4 person's life. Everything I have read and heard
5 has really helped me fill out the rest of the
6 picture, and all of the other things that
7 Mr. Tetso is about. His helpfulness to others,
8 his kindness, how much respect people have for
9 him in this community. There are a lot of
10 difficult things about his background, but also
11 many, many reasons to have hope for the future.
12 One of the themes that comes
13 out from what I heard and read is that there are
14 people in this community who want to help him
15 when he gets out of custody and returns to the
16 community. There are people who have invited
17 him, not just once he is released, but well ahead
18 of his release date to be in touch, so that they
19 can help prepare for his return, so that he can
20 be successful when he returns. And that is very
21 important.
22 One of the objectives of
23 sentencing is to protect the community. Protect
24 every one of you from harm that could be caused
25 by others. Ultimately, the best way to protect
26 the community from Mr. Tetso is for him to have
27 supports when he returns, and when he has to make
1 those difficult decisions, the choice not to
2 drink or not to do any of the other things that
3 have led him to destructive behaviour. I really
4 hope that Mr. Tetso will take up the community on
5 that invitation. He will need his community when
6 he is released.
7 He has a lot of support, and I
8 can say that not every person I have sentenced
9 had that kind of support. In fact, I think this
10 may be one of the cases I have heard where I
11 sense there is the most support. Mr. Tetso has
12 had a lot of misfortune in his life, but the
13 support and love of his family and his community
14 is the greatest of treasures.
15 I am not going to talk about
16 everything that is in the presentence report, but
17 I do want to say I have carefully considered
18 Mr. Tetso's background, and I find it to be a
19 very significant consideration on sentencing. He
20 is a very good example of what is sometimes
21 called "intergenerational trauma." Both his
22 parents attended residential school. Through the
23 information in the presentence report, we know,
24 and we know, in any event, that, for many, this
25 was not a positive experience. Those kinds of
26 experiences affect people, and their ability to
27 parent their children.
1 Both Mr. Tetso's parents
2 abused alcohol in the home, and as a child, he
3 was exposed to the chaos and dysfunction that
4 comes with that. He was put in foster care when
5 he was 13 because of the situation in his home.
6 He, himself, started abusing alcohol when he was
7 a teenager. Things got worse for him after the
8 death of his father. His alcohol abuse got
9 worse, and this led to other problems. I heard
10 that he struggled with suicidal ideas over time,
11 and attempted suicide on a number of occasions.
12 It seems that he spent many years of his life in
13 a terrible spiral.
14 All of that would be traumatic
15 enough, but he also was a witness to a double
16 murder and suicide within a year or so after the
17 death of his father. He knew all three people
18 who died. What that would do to someone is
19 unimaginable. I could try to imagine it, but I
20 cannot know. So it is not difficult to
21 understand why Mr. Tetso has some grief and anger
22 inside of him, and perhaps it comes out when he
23 is intoxicated.
24 One of the psychologists who
25 saw Mr. Tetso in 2006 commented that Mr. Tetso
26 "would like to stop drinking, but finds life too
27 painful to experience soberly." His lawyer
1 mentioned this in submissions yesterday, and it
2 struck me, too, when I read it the first time.
3 It is such a heartbreaking
4 statement, but I have no doubt it accurately
5 reflects how he has felt at times. Probably a
6 lot of the time, and, again, based on what he's
7 been through, it is not difficult at all to
8 understand that that is how he would feel about
9 experiencing life. The problem, of course, is
10 that alcohol may mask the pain temporarily, but
11 it often causes more pain, and it allows the
12 anger and the pain to build up and blow up with
13 results that can be catastrophic, as they were in
14 this case.
15 What is very important to
16 remember also, though, is that Mr. Tetso actually
17 has a lot going for him. He has been able to
18 work. He is a talented artist. By all accounts,
19 he is deeply, deeply connected with his culture
20 and with his traditional ways. He has a daughter
21 that he has to think about, and as I have already
22 mentioned, he has enormous support from his
23 family. Many spoke of forgiveness and love.
24 These are all things that can be solid anchors.
25 He has a lot of good things to fall back on, but
26 I think he understands that that can only happen
27 if he remains sober. It is true for him as it is
1 true for so many who struggle with the same kinds
2 of issues.
3 I do understand why people say
4 "this is a nice person when he is sober." "It
5 was the alcohol who did this." Many people said
6 things along those lines to the author of the
7 presentence report, and yesterday in the letters
8 and the victim impact statements that I read.
9 I think it also has to be
10 recognized that there is more to it than the
11 alcohol, and I say this with enormous respect for
12 those who talked about alcohol being the reason
13 for all of this.
14 Some people consume alcohol,
15 even to excess, and are not violent when they are
16 intoxicated. Without doubt, the alcohol may be
17 what causes the violence and the anger to explode
18 out of someone, but the alcohol is never the
19 actual reason for the anger. It is often said
20 that achieving sobriety can be very hard, but
21 even as hard as it is, it is only the first step.
22 The even harder work starts once the alcohol is
23 no longer used to mask the pain, the issues, and
24 the terrible memories.
25 On the whole, the evidence
26 about Mr. Tetso's circumstances reduce his moral
27 blameworthiness. His experience is exactly what
1 the Supreme Court of Canada talked about and said
2 should be taken into account in sentencing
3 Aboriginal offenders. It would be very difficult
4 to find a more compelling example of such a
5 situation.
6 I said I have to take into
7 account the principles of sentencing, and I do
8 not intend to go on and on this afternoon about
9 what those principles are. I have considered
10 them carefully, and I have considered the cases
11 that were filed.
12 I will say that the crime of
13 manslaughter is causing the death of another
14 person through an unlawful act. It is always
15 very serious because always someone has died. It
16 is fundamentally different from murder because it
17 does not involve an intent to cause death. It's
18 an offence that can be committed in a very wide
19 range of ways from something arising from a near
20 accident all the way to the thing that is very
21 close to actual murder.
22 Because the range of conduct
23 is so broad, the sentencing range is also very
24 broad. The Criminal Code says that for
25 manslaughter, the sentence can be anything from
26 no jail to life in jail. And in the Northwest
27 Territories, we have examples of both those
1 extremes. I know at least one case where someone
2 did not get jail on a manslaughter conviction,
3 and I know of one case where someone got life
4 imprisonment on a manslaughter conviction.
5 More often than not, cases are
6 not at those two extremes. But usually, a
7 significant jail term is required to reflect the
8 seriousness of causing the death of another no
9 matter how sympathic the circumstances of the
10 offender may be. And this is reflected in the
11 cases filed by counsel. Sentences between four
12 and six years were imposed in these cases. It is
13 always difficult to compare cases, though,
14 because there are so many different features to
15 every one.
16 To decide what a fit sentence
17 is in this case, I must be guided by what is
18 called "proportionality." A sentence must be
19 proportionate to the seriousness of the offence
20 and the degree of the blameworthiness of the
21 person who committed it. I have already talked
22 about things that reduce Mr. Tetso's
23 blameworthiness, but there are also things about
24 his defence that elevate his blameworthiness what
25 we call "aggravating factors."
26 Even with the lack of clarity
27 as to exactly what happened, we know that this
1 fight went on for some time. The injuries show
2 that a weapon was used at some point. Ms. Tetso
3 was in her own home where she should have been
4 safe. She was harmed by a trusted family member,
5 someone she should have been able to expect
6 protection from. Indeed, I heard that a lot of
7 times, Mr. Tetso did look after her and protected
8 her. But not this night.
9 She was particularly
10 vulnerable given the level of intoxication, her
11 small stature, and her health issues. This was
12 also the culmination of an afternoon and evening
13 where Mr. Tetso was aggressive and violent
14 towards others as well. He was not charged
15 separately for this, but he did attack another
16 family member and caused injuries that required
17 medical attention.
18 These are things that make the
19 situation more serious, but there are also
20 mitigating factors.
21 The guilty plea is an
22 extremely mitigating factor for many reasons.
23 First of all, it has spared his family members
24 the anxiety of knowing they would have to
25 testify, and the trauma of testifying and having
26 to relive these events. I have presided over
27 many trials, and I see what going through the
1 trial process can do to people who have to
2 testify. Especially in this case, I can only
3 imagine how truly awful it would have been for
4 Mr. Tetso's family members to have to testify as
5 prosecution witnesses.
6 The second reason the guilty
7 plea is extremely mitigating is that in
8 circumstances where Mr. Tetso does not remember
9 what he did, the fact that he is prepared to take
10 responsibility for it adds to the mitigating
11 effect of that plea. It is a very compelling
12 demonstration of his true, genuine remorse.
13 Especially since he did so against the advice of
14 his lawyer.
15 Somewhat related to this is
16 that there would have been significant triable
17 issues in this case. What I mean by that is that
18 the issue of causation, what actually caused
19 Ms. Tetso's death, would not have been clear-cut.
20 Far from it. It may have been challenging for
21 the Crown to prove causation beyond a reasonable
22 doubt under all had these circumstances. To put
23 it bluntly, had Mr. Tetso exercised his right to
24 have a trial, his counsel might well have been
25 able to raise a doubt about causation, and
26 Mr. Tetso may have avoided being convicted for
27 this offence.
1 But instead, he chose to take
2 responsibility and give up his right to put the
3 Crown to the proof of its case. That is a
4 remarkable demonstration of true remorse, and it
5 says an awful lot about his character. It fits
6 very well, actually, with how many have described
7 Mr. Tetso. Someone who cares deeply about his
8 family, wants to help others, and someone who has
9 good values.
10 Having thought about this, I
11 actually have to say I find it difficult to think
12 of a situation where a guilty plea could be more
13 mitigating than in this case.
14 I agree with the Crown that
15 the criminal record is not much a factor on the
16 sentencing. It shows that Mr. Tetso has been in
17 trouble before, he has committed assaults before,
18 but when I look at the sentences that were
19 imposed for those offences, they must have been
20 at the very minor end of the scale. I am also
21 aware that he was on probation for mischief when
22 he committed this offence. Again, it is a
23 factor, but it is not of great significance.
24 On this case, the Crown and
25 Defence have presented a joint submission. They
26 are both saying that I should impose a sentence
27 of four and a half years for Mr. Tetso. They
1 also agree that Mr. Tetso is entitled to credit
2 for the time he has already spent in custody, and
3 that whatever sentence I impose needs to be
4 reduced to reflect that.
5 The law is that when the
6 lawyers present a joint submission, a judge has
7 to give that joint submission a lot of weight. A
8 judge cannot not follow a joint submission unless
9 a judge thinks the joint submission is completely
10 unreasonable that it is so removed from what the
11 judge thinks the sentence should be that it could
12 cause the public to lose confidence in the
13 criminal justice system.
14 The reason the law says that
15 judges have to put so much weight on a joint
16 submission is that the lawyers know the case
17 inside out. They know about all of the evidence,
18 the issues that could have arisen. They know
19 things about the case that may actually not come
20 out in court, things that I will never know, so
21 their assessment of what the sentence should be,
22 things like the value of the guilty plea, for
23 example, is deserving of a lot of consideration.
24 The other reason is that
25 people who agree to plead guilty knowing that a
26 joint position will be presented may be less
27 willing to plead guilty if they do not have
1 confidence that the joint recommendation will
2 generally be followed. And for the reasons I
3 have already talked about, there is enormous
4 value in avoiding trials. All this to say, even
5 if I disagreed with the joint submission, it
6 would not be the reason not to follow it. I
7 would have to think it is entirely unreasonable
8 before I could do something else.
9 Those who were here yesterday
10 know that I raised this issue, and it is not
11 because I disagree with the joint submission,
12 actually I think, as counsel have recognized,
13 that given the aggravating factors and the
14 circumstances of the assault on Ms. Tetso, it is
15 more on the lenient side of the range. But I
16 agree that given the mitigating factors and
17 Mr. Tetso's circumstances, this is the case where
18 the maximum restraint possible should be
19 exercised.
20 The joint position recognizes
21 that Mr. Tetso has spared witnesses in this
22 community additional harm and trauma of this
23 matter going to trial. That would have prolonged
24 the uncertainty and the anxiety. It may have
25 caused divisions within the community or within
26 the family. It might have caused further harm.
27 Giving up one's right to a trial is giving up a
1 lot. It has saved court time and resources, but
2 that is not the most important part. The most
3 important part is that it has spared many people
4 from going through the difficult process of a
5 trial. I commend the Crown for exercising as
6 much restraint as it did in taking that position.
7 The joint position also
8 demonstrates realism and fairness of the
9 Defence's part. It shows the willingness to
10 acknowledge the seriousness of this matter
11 despite all the positive things and the factors
12 that reduce Mr. Tetso's blameworthiness, and
13 specifically, his circumstances as an Aboriginal
14 offender.
15 In the end, of course, it is
16 my responsibility to decide what the sentence
17 should be. My only hesitation about following
18 the joint submission is that it means that a
19 further jail term of more than two years has to
20 be imposed if I follow it. And that places the
21 sentence by just a few months in the penitentiary
22 range. What that means is that it would be up to
23 the correctional authorities to decide whether
24 Mr. Tetso will serve his jail term in the north.
25 And I listened to many people yesterday who asked
26 that I impose a sentence that would not result in
27 him being sent to a penitentiary.
1 One person asked me to
2 sentence him to "time served." This is not
3 something that I can do.
4 I have to follow the law. The
5 lawyers who are here on this case are
6 experienced, thorough, extremely competent, and
7 extremely fair, and I do not doubt that they have
8 given their positions careful consideration. And
9 as I have said, I have to agree that they are
10 right.
11 I have a lot of compassion for
12 Mr. Tetso and for his family, but I must also
13 ensure that my decision is in line with the law
14 and does reflect the seriousness of what
15 happened. What is being proposed is a fit
16 sentence in all circumstances. It represents an
17 extremely restrained approach for this type of
18 offence. But I think it is the fair and just
19 result.
20 I have to trust and hope that
21 the authorities responsible for making placement
22 decisions will recognize that 1) a further jail
23 term imposed will be barely above the two-year
24 mark. 2) that Mr. Tetso has considerable support
25 from his community, and that fostering that
26 continued support is an important aspect of his
27 rehabilitation, which, ultimately, is what we all
1 want to see happen. 3) that he has already taken
2 steps towards rehabilitation within the northern
3 institution where he was on remand, including
4 regular contact with professionals in that
5 institution. He has made progress, and that
6 should be encouraged.
7 I really, really hope that
8 based on all of this, and based on all of the
9 evidence heard at this hearing, the information
10 included in the presentence report, and
11 everything else that was filed, it will be as
12 obvious to those making placement decisions, as
13 it is to me, that Mr. Tetso should be permitted
14 to serve his sentence in the north.
15 The Crown has sought ancillary
16 orders, and I will deal with those first. This
17 is a primary designated offence, so there will be
18 a DNA order. There will also be a firearms
19 prohibition as of today and ten years after
20 Mr. Tetso's release. There will be an order for
21 a victim of crime surcharge as it is mandatory.
22 The time to pay a default time as provided by the
23 statute.
24 Can you stand up, please.
25 Mr. Tetso, I am going to follow the joint
26 submission. If it was not for the time you
27 already spent in custody, the sentence would have
1 been four and a half years. For the 560 days you
2 have already spent in custody, I give you credit
3 for 27 and a half months. So the further jail
4 term will be 26 and a half months, which means
5 two years and two and a half months. You can sit
6 down.
7 I direct that a transcript of
8 what I said this afternoon be prepared on an
9 expedited basis so that it can be sent to the
10 correctional authorities for their review and
11 considered when they make their placement
12 decision.
13 I also direct, for the same
14 reasons, that a copy of the presentence report,
15 the victim impact statements, and all the support
16 letters be sent to the correctional authorities
17 as well so they can see for themselves the kind
18 of support that you have, and so they can see for
19 themselves why it is important. I also hope that
20 that information will be of assistance to those
21 who are working with you while you serve your
22 sentence.
23 Mr. Tetso, I know you are
24 truly sorry about this. I know you are being
25 punished every day for having to live with what
26 you have done, and that my sentence means very
27 little compared to what you are already going
1 through. I have also not often heard and read as
2 many words of support and love for a person that
3 I have to sentence.
4 You are well regarded by
5 members of this community and by your family. As
6 your sister told you yesterday, do not forget
7 that. There are people here, as I mentioned,
8 that would like you to be in touch with them
9 ahead of your release so they can help prepare
10 for your return, so they can put things in place
11 to help you succeed. Everyone wants to see you
12 succeed, and you will need these supports.
13 You have many, many talents.
14 Many ways to contribute to this community. You
15 can share your experience with others when you
16 are ready. You can help others who are
17 struggling in the way you have struggled. You
18 can be there for your daughter and help her to
19 become a strong, wise woman. You are still
20 young, and there is a lot for you to do. So many
21 goods things you can do for Deline. Do not give
22 up hope, and do not give up on life.
23 Have I missed anything from
24 the Defence's perspective?
25 MR. DAVISON: No. But in addition to the
26 other steps that you have directed be taken, I
27 would ask there be an endorsement on the warrant
1 of committal that the Court is giving as strong
2 as possible recommendation to placement in the
3 north, and perhaps even to alert the authorities
4 that that document that the transcript and other
5 materials that you referred to will be sent to
6 them as quickly as possible so they don't
7 possibly make a decision before having that
8 material.
9 THE COURT: Yes. Thank you for reminding
10 me. That is very much my intention. I am
11 directing that the warrant of committal be
12 endorsed with my strongest, and I do want the
13 word "strongest" to be there in bold and
14 underlined, recommendation that Mr. Tetso will be
15 permitted to serve his sentence in a northern
16 institution. And I am going to direct that a
17 note be sent along with the warrant of committal
18 indicating that I have ordered that a copy of the
19 transcript and all of the exhibits be sent to the
20 correctional authorities as well.
21 I do not see a reason why
22 copies of the exhibits cannot be sent right away
23 when we return to Yellowknife, but also let them
24 know that the transcript will be coming.
25 Have I overlooked anything
26 else?
27 MS. PICHÉ: No, Your Honour.
1 THE COURT: Thank you.
2 Before we close court, I want
3 to thank the court staff. I want to thank the
4 interpreter for her hard work. I thank and
5 commend all counsel for their work on this case,
6 and I thank the community members for their
7 participation and for attending today and for
8 showing as much support as you have for
9 Mr. Tetso. Because, ultimately, I believe
10 strongly that that is what will make the
11 difference for the future.
12 We will close court.
13 THE COURT CLERK: Thank you, Your Honour.
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1
2 CERTIFICATE OF TRANSCRIPT
3
4 I, the undersigned, hereby certify that the
5 foregoing pages are a complete and accurate
6 transcript of the proceedings produced from the
7 stenographic notes of Karilee Mankow, Court Reporter,
8 in shorthand and transcribed from audio recording
9 to the best of my skill and ability.
10 Dated at the City of Edmonton, Province of
11 Alberta, this 31st day of July, 2018.
12
13 Certified Pursuant to Rule 723
14 of the Rules of Court
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18 __________________________
19 Karilee Mankow
20 Court Reporter
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