Pubdate: Thu, 22 Nov 2007
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2007 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Daryl Slade

DRUG DEALER HEADED TO JAIL

Just a day after the federal government unveiled legislation to 
impose mandatory prison terms for drug trafficking, the province's 
highest court quashed a trafficker's conditional sentence and sent 
him to prison.

In the decision released Wednesday, the Alberta Court of Appeal said 
Nathan Randy Sawatsky, 26, was "an unqualified recipient of a 
conditional sentence."

Justices Peter Martin, Ged Hawco and Sandy Park, in accepting Crown 
prosecutor Bob Sigurdson's argument, substituted a 31/2-year prison 
term for the sentence of two years less a day that was to be served 
primarily under house arrest.

"We think the sentencing judge erred in allowing herself to be guided 
by dubious decisions where accused persons were given a conditional 
sentence in response to a serious crime, notwithstanding their 
lengthy criminal records, which include breaches of court orders and 
occasionally a prior conditional sentence," Martin wrote on behalf of 
the panel.

Sawatsky, who pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine after selling the 
illicit drug to an undercover officer five times, has a lengthy 
criminal record. He had 37 convictions for disobeying court orders 
and drug offences.

"We agree with the Crown that those who organize and manage 
'dial-a-dope' schemes to traffic in drugs, such as cocaine, 
methamphetamine and ecstasy, should usually be sentenced to terms of 
actual incarceration," the decision said.

"Non-custodial sentences in response to such offences offer little to 
nothing by way of general deterrence to like-minded individuals, 
which is a vital sentencing objective in such cases."

The proposal to impose automatic prison penalties on serious drug 
offenders is part of the Harper government's sweeping crackdown on crime.

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Tuesday the proposed 
changes in sentencing provisions are designed to target the root of 
the drug supply problem.

It includes bills before Parliament to toughen rules for repeat 
violent offenders and to keep accused young offenders in jail before 
their trials.

There are now no mandatory prison sentences for anyone convicted 
under Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

The appellate court noted that Sawatsky's sentence was affected by 
the fact the Crown prosecutor was misled to believe Sawatsky was 
registered in a two-year environmental technology program at SAIT, to 
which he was supposedly applying himself diligently.

"We are now told that information was false," Martin wrote.

"That significantly changes the complexion of the case, and casts 
(Sawatsky) more as a con man than a rehabilitated criminal. It also 
removes the very tenuous unpinning of this conditional sentence order."

The judges gave Sawatsky 10 months credit for the portion of his 
sentence he had already served, leaving two years and eight months to serve.
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