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'Tragic and difficult' circumstances led King to cocaine trafficking, court, says judge

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Mandy Goulet faces 10 months for repeatedly stabbing her partner with a kitchen knife in an aggravated assault. NNSL file photoNNSL file photo

The “tragic and difficult” circumstances of Travis King's early life were precursors to his inevitable first stop in Canada's criminal justice system, said Justice Karan Shaner as she handed down a trafficking sentence Monday.

King, 21, was found guilty of possession of cocaine for the purposes of trafficking in Supreme Court and will serve two years less a day plus two years of probation to be served locally.

Crown prosecutors Brendan Green and Martha Chertkow suggested a sentence of three years, while defence lawyer Peter Harte recommended his client serve 18 months minus six and a half months already served in pre-trial custody.

In balancing the goals of deterring drug trafficking, the judge referenced a decision by Justice Louise Charbonneau which states trafficking wreaks havoc on Northern communities and should have “serious penalties.”

Shaner sentenced King to 30 months, less the six and a half months served in pretrial custody.

King was apprehended by social services twice as a child and drifted from home to home and with his mother who lost her home to addiction.

“Frankly, I am surprised that this is your first stop,” said Shaner.

On May 27, 2016 King was arrested for obstruction of justice. Mounties pulled over a vehicle near Enterprise.

King was brought to the Hay River RCMP detachment where he was strip searched. Mounties found 111 grams of cocaine on his person.

Harte challenged the legality of this strip search, but the court ultimately found it to be lawful.

Shaner, in her decision, spoke of the need for atonement for the pain trafficking inflicts on Northern communities and the social circumstances that led King into crime and the system.

King, hair neatly cut, rose promptly when asked to stand by the judge.

In her decision, Shaner said King is an Indigenous man who comes to the court with “adverse” circumstances.

“It never gets any less heartbreaking," she said.

He did not have a “reliable or safe home” and “has had no parental guidance in his relatively short life,” she said.

King had no relationship with his father and was raised by a single mother in the throes of addiction and homelessness.

He bounced from home to home, sometimes living with relatives in Saskatchewan, and at one point with his grandmother who died when King was 11 years old.

His home life was “unstable and chaotic,” said Shaner.

He spent time in group homes, which King himself described as an “unpleasant experience” and lived with an uncle who emotionally abused him.

He soon moved back in with his mother and when she lost her housing, he tried to survive on the streets.

King relied on friends for food, quit school and while living with a cousin at age 18 in Saskatchewan, began selling coke.

King made $600 weekly.

“He did this so he could make ends meet,” said Shaner, adding penalties for trafficking must be firm.

“The North is a very tempting market for traffickers," she said. “Cocaine causes ravages and devastation in our communities."

People often lose everything, and tangential crimes including robbery and petty theft proliferate. Cocaine woes routinely appear in family court, she said.

Cocaine in Canada runs approximately $100 per gram, putting the estimated street value of the drugs on his person at $11,000.

King is young with “strong prospects for rehabilitation,” she said.

In his arguments, lawyer Peter Harte referenced a University of Toronto study that showed harsher sentences and mandatory minimums do little for deterrence.

Shaner rejected the argument against mandatory minimums, stating that the courts cannot change federal policies or legislation, nor can it “compensate for the failures of social policy.”

“The tools that I have to work with are prison or probation,” she said.

The Gladue principle, where an Indigenous person's experiences with systemic racism and overrepresentation in the courts must be considered in sentencing, is relevant to King's case, she said.

The Crown secured a 10-year firearms prohibition against King, and an order to collect DNA to be submitted to the national registry.

Many Indigenous offenders find themselves in situations of economic or social “deprivation,” said Shaner.

At the end of the sentencing, Shaner spoke directly to King, stating that she hoped his period of custody and probation would provide “structure and guidance” and an opportunity for him to rehabilitate himself and access counselling services and reconcile his past.

“Choose wisely ... take responsibility for your life. Get housing, get training, get a job,” she said.

Otherwise, “it's going to become a revolving door. And it's never going to stop.”