Rwandan immigrant facing jail in Sudbury still waiting for racism report
Judge, however, says he won't let sentencing get bogged down while waiting for a decision on whether report can proceed
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A Windsor man caught in Sudbury with weapons last year will be sentenced on Oct. 24 even if a special report the accused wants on the racism he says he has experienced in Canada is not done.
Ontario Court Justice Leonard Kim said he won’t let the case against Yves Sika get bogged down.
“If we keep doing nothing, we are doing exactly what the Supreme Court of Canada wants us not to,” Justice Kim told a Sudbury court. “The public loses confidence in the justice system if they have to wait that long for a crime that dealt with the community.
“I don’t want to be part of a process that erodes the public confidence in our justice system … We can’t do nothing, That’s part of the culture of complacency.”
Sika, 36, pleaded guilty on March 4 to possession of a weapon contrary to a court order and possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle. The Crown is seeking a two-year jail term.
However, in connection with his sentencing, Sika wants an Impact on Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA) report done.
On March 18, the court heard that an IRCA report – which will cost more than $6,000 to prepare – can take 15 months to complete primarily due to a waiting list that puts people in custody at the top of the list.
Sika, however, is not in custody.
According to the federal government, “IRCAs are pre-sentencing reports that help sentencing judges to better understand the effect of poverty, marginalization, racism, and social exclusion on the offender and their life experience. IRCAs explain the relationship between the offender’s lived experiences of racism and discrimination and how they inform the circumstances of the offender, the offence committed, and the offender’s experience with the justice system.”
Such reports “inform sentencing judges of the disadvantages and systemic racism faced by Black and other racialized Canadians and may recommend alternatives to incarceration and/or culturally appropriate accountability measures within a sentence of incarceration.”
The court heard this week that while a regular pre-sentence report on Sika has been completed, it does not touch on racism issues the Rwandan immigrant claims to have experienced while living in Canada.
As well, defence lawyer Lance Talbot said Legal Aid Ontario has yet to give him an answer on whether Sika is eligible to have an IRCA report done.
“They said they are going to expedite the request,” Talbot said.
If the IRCA request is granted, Talbot said Sika and people connected to him would be interviewed. Such a report could take about a year to complete.
“If they do not (approve the request), we would just have to proceed (with regular sentencing),” he said.
Justice Kim said that while he understands Sika’s right to the IRCA report, waiting a year for sentencing is too long.
Kim then ordered that a sentencing date be set, pending what happens with Legal Aid Ontario and Sika’s IRCA request.
“I’m not saying we have to rush folks, but we need to move forward …” said the judge. “We are going to set a date today. We are not going to do nothing.”
Kim then set Oct. 24 as the sentencing date.
As well, Talbot will update the court on the IRCA request by June. 17.
Talbot has said Legal Aid must give its okay to cover the cost of the IRCA report before it can be ordered.
Sika is no stranger to the courts. He caused two crashes – one in Windsor, the other in Sudbury – while drunk in 2022 and 2023. In the Windsor case, he fled the scene while a victim of the crash suffered a broken arm. In the Sudbury case, the car he was driving burst into flames after hitting a rock cut.
He was fined and lost his driver’s licence for five years for those two incidents and a third one that also occurred in Sudbury.
In that case, Sika pulled out a knife during a confrontation in downtown Sudbury on Feb. 11, 2023. He and another man fled in a red Land Rover.
When Greater Sudbury Police caught up to him, Sika, who was driving, became confrontational with the officers. He also had a strong odour of alcohol on his breath.
Sika made three attempts to provide a breath sample with an Approved Screening Device, but they all failed. He was charged with failing to provide a breath sample to police.
hcarmichael@postmedia.com
X: @HaroldCarmichae