Crown prosecutors are under orders to seek early and quick settlements, rather than go to trial or seek long sentences

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If Canadians have ever felt like they had a handle on who goes to jail, when and why, and for how long, it’s tough to believe they do nowadays. Or if they think they do, chances are good they’re not too happy about it. Once you notice how many news stories there are about people who have been accused or convicted of violent crimes, and then gotten out on bail or parole, and then been latterly accused or convicted of further violent offences, it is quite difficult to un-notice it.

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Whatever you thought about the Freedom Convoy that took over downtown Ottawa in 2022, it was remarkable to see the Crown ask for sentences of up to eight years for the organizers’ non-violent offences. Ottawa Police should have been able to prevent all that from happening, with frankly minimal effort. And eight years is a considerable sentence in a Canadian court.

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Compare that to what happens with some unambiguously violent offenders.

In July, the Crown recommended a sentence of seven to nine years for 29-year-old Jamal Joshua Malik Wheeler, who fatally stabbed total stranger Rukinisha Nkundabatware, a 52-year-old Congolese refugee and father of seven, at an Edmonton transit stop in 2023. Wheeler’s previous offences included attacking three other random strangers on the transit system, in one case brandishing an axe.

Earlier in July in Vancouver, Provincial Court Judge Susan Sangha approved the Crown’s sentencing recommendation for Zachary Shettell, whose hobbies include consuming opiates and punching random strangers in the face, leaving them writhing in pain on the sidewalk. He had pled guilty to sucker-punching three strangers, as well as pouring hot coffee on a bank teller. His record was 27 convictions long, including three for assault. He rejected any need for counselling or treatment for his admitted substance-abuse problems and denied he had any psychiatric issues.

Shettell’s court-approved sentence was 18 months.

Later in July, the Crown in Ontario decided 240 days in pretrial custody had constituted sufficient incarceration for a 17-year-old girl, 14 at the time of the crime, who was convicted of manslaughter in the fatal “swarming” attack by feral teens and tweens on Kenneth Lee, a homeless man who was just minding his and his down-on-their-luck friends’ business in downtown Toronto. Should she ever reoffend, thanks to her young-offender status and the adamantine publication ban on her name that comes with it, it’s likely the public would never know about it.