Conservatives plan to end leniency for non-citizen criminals in Canadian courts

 

Conservatives to end leniency for non-citizen criminals

Non-citizens convicted of serious crimes should be deported,

not given leniency by virtue of their immigration status.

Michelle Rempel Garner

Aug 13, 2025

Should judges be allowed to use a non-citizen's immigration status to issue a more lenient sentence to a convicted offender for their crime?

While many Canadians would rightly say no,  2013 Supreme Court ruling (R. v. Pham) suggested otherwise, and legislation is urgently needed to address this problem. 

Here’s why.

The Pham ruling effectively allowed judges to, in certain circumstances, consider the impact of triggering a removal process under Canada’s Immigration Refugee and Protection Act (“IRPA”) provisions when issuing a sentence. Those provisions include deportation without appeal rights for non-citizens convicted in Canada of an offence under an Act of Parliament punishable by a maximum imprisonment term of at least 10 years, or for crimes in which a term exceeding six months has been imposed.

Lately, as public support for immigration has waned amid the Liberal government's rapid increases to the number of immigrants entering Canada that outpaced housing, healthcare, and job market capacities, several high-profile cases of judges applying leniency in sentencing due to potential impact on immigration status have emerged.

For example, a permanent resident received a conditional sentence after being convicted of trying to purchase sexual services from a 15-year-old, as a stronger penalty would have hindered him and his wife from obtaining Canadian citizenship. Another non-citizen in Canada on a visitor's permit was convicted of twice groping an 18-year-old woman's genitals under her skirt as she stood at the bar to buy a drink and received a discharge to avoid a permanent criminal record and allow a deportation appeal. There are many other examples that illustrate the trend of immigration status being considered in sentencing, with criminal lawyers now routinely arguing for lighter sentences so their non-citizen clients can evade deportation or denial of citizenship under IRPA's current provisions.

While it’s tempting to blame judges for this state of affairs, the fault squarely lies with the federal Liberal government, who, in spite of the increased evidence of leniency in sentencing due to consideration of immigration status in recent years, have declined to provide more clarity to judges through legislation. 

This is why once the House of Commons resumes in the fall, Conservatives will introduce legislation to amend the Criminal Code to rectify this issue. Our bill will add a section after Section 718.202 of the Criminal Code which will expressly outline that any potential impact of a sentence on the immigration status of a convicted non-citizen offender, or that of their family members, should not be taken into consideration by a judge when issuing a sentence.

The rationale for this change is straightforward. Anyone seeking residence or citizenship in Canada has responsibilities as well as rights. The citizenship guide clearly states that citizens must obey Canada's laws and respect the rights and freedoms of others, and IRPA outlines the potential consequences for non-citizens who fail to do so. Without legislative clarity on considering immigration status in sentencing, judges can apply aspects of the Pham ruling to undermine that principle for non-citizens, effectively end-running the deportation consequences already enacted by Parliament through IRPA. 

In effect, the Criminal Code amendment that Conservatives plan to propose this fall will prevent judges from using aspects of the Pham ruling to prioritize the process of entering and staying in Canada over the responsibility to respect Canadian law required of those seeking to do so. It will also help quell anger from Canadians who have read about high-profile rulings where the perception has arisen that non-citizens are receiving leniency for a crime committed on Canadian soil simply by virtue of their non-citizen status.

The vast majority of people in Canada who have immigrated here or are on temporary visas  abide by the law. Removal from Canada for non-citizens after being convicted of a serious crime is a no-brainer to both protect Canadians, the value of Canadian citizenship, and every person who resides in Canada and plays by the rules. 

After a decade of Liberal post-nationalism and excessively high immigration levels, accepting this change would allow the Liberals to demonstrate some respect for Canadian citizenship by affirming that, at minimum, the privilege of residing here for non-citizens depends on adherence to the rule of law.

Kansas Teacher Takes Plea Deal and Gets Pathetic Sentence for Sexually Abusing Students

What Mom has to say about that

After a plea of not guilty at a previous arraignment several months ago, former Prairie View High School teacher and coach Keaton M. Krell has decided to change his plea for a lesser sentence and a hope for leniency.

Krell, who was facing 20 counts of felony unlawful sexual relations of a teacher with a student 16 years of age or older, chose to amend his plea Monday, pleading guilty to three counts of aggravated battery, a severity level 7 person felony with a minimum sentence of 11 months and a maximum of 34 months per count. The charges also carry a fine of up to $100,000 per count.

By choosing to plead guilty and enter into the plea agreement, Krell is agreeing to forego his right to a trial. He could still be subjected to the maximum sentencing, pending the district judge’s decision at his sentencing hearing currently scheduled for 3:30 p.m. April 10 in Mound City.

According to court documents, the charges Krell is pleading to are not a registerable offense. So, he will not be required to register as a sex offender in Kansas. He will have to complete a sex offender evaluation and follow recommendations as well as a drug and alcohol evaluation.

Additionally, Krell will be allowed to move out of state if he so desires once the sentencing conditions are met. He has been banned from having further contact with the victims in the case.

According to court documents, the sentence for each count could be allowed to run concurrently with one another, and the Linn County District Court case 16CR92 naming the original charges (felony unlawful sexual relations) will be dismissed with prejudice upon successful sentencing of the current case.

Krell was arrested May 19, 2016, after working for Prairie View USD 362 for five years as an English teacher. He was also the girls basketball coach.

The violations listed in the original 20 counts of felony unlawful sexual relations of a teacher with a student 16 years of age or older date back to 2014.

Krell was put on paid administrative leave shortly after his arrest before later being terminated. He is no longer a Prairie View USD 362 employee.

The Sentence:

Keaton Krell was sentenced to 2 consecutive 13 month terms yesterday and was taken into custody immediately after sentencing. 26 months in prison might just help him have plenty of time to think about his crimes and his victims. May prison give him all it has to offer child predators. I hope and pray that the girls and families now can begin the healing process. May he rot in there. Unfortunately the law did not allow for him to be required to register as a sex offender under the Alford plea deal he made. I pray that parents everywhere will memorize the name and face to be able to protect their children from him upon his release.

Save Prairie View USD 362 Buffalos

5 June 2018  · 

Mom's Response:

I completely agree with Mom here. It is just so pathetic what some DAs will do to avoid going to trial. And then the judge gives him what is virtually a minimum sentence! Why? He has already escaped most of the charges, reduced then to where they are not registerable, and then the judge treats him very leniently. Why? Don't the victims count for anything? Judges are far too perpetrator oriented; they need to consider the victims and the potential victims, and put their justice needs above that of criminals.

Linn Co., Ks

Canadian Police Force, Judges Have a Long Way to Go Responding to Sexual Assaults

Victim says police not doing enough to find convicted rapist who vanished before sentencing

A Survivor's Story

By Jennifer Quesnel, CBC News

After the man convicted of raping her vanished, the victim says police in Saskatoon have done little to find him despite leads suggesting he is still in Canada.

"I'm not waiting for a phone call I'm never going to get," said the woman CBC News is calling Sarah, to protect her identity.

Sarah was raped for hours at the University of Saskatchewan's McEown Park dormitory in the early hours of New Year's Day 2012. She's not sure exactly how many attackers there were but DNA testing detected the presence of semen from two men.

'I just collapsed, and I was underneath the table,

like, shaking and bawling.'

- "Sarah"

Timloh "Butchang" Nkem was arrested, charged and convicted of sexual assault but never showed up for sentencing and hasn't been seen since.

Sarah says police at first treated her case seriously, but for nearly three years now, she has come up against one roadblock after another in her pursuit of justice.

1 suspect acquitted

Sarah had identified one suspect in her rape, an international student. She said the student was the one assailant she could remember

When Justice Richard Danyliuk acquitted the man of sexual assault, saying he believed the man honestly thought Sarah had consented to sex that night, she was heartbroken.

"I just collapsed, and I was underneath the table, like, shaking and bawling," she said.

The Crown prosecutor requested the court hold Nkem in custody following his conviction, but the judge denied the request. (Sketch artist Thomas Webster)

The second suspect, Nigerian-born Nkem, had come to Canada on a student visa in 2006 but was no longer a student at the time of the assault.

In 2013, police had charged Nkem with marijuana possession, depositing fraudulent cheques and using stolen identification to withdraw money and cash cheques. Those charges were eventually stayed.

During the trial, Sarah said Nkem's friends would attend and laugh at her and her family, sometimes smuggling alcohol into the courtroom.

After he was convicted, Crown prosecutor Buffy Rodgers requested the court hold him in custody. Danyliuk denied the request, permitting Nkem to remain on bail until his sentencing.

Why do they do that? If it's obvious he is going to get a custodial sentence, why present him with the temptation to run?

Saskatoon woman 'disgusted' with police response to sexual assault case

Woman says she was raped in university dorm and frequently sees her alleged attacker on campus

Still, on Oct. 31, 2014, Sarah was hopeful as she headed to court for Nkem's sentencing, blasting Queen's We Will Rock You in the car.

But when she and her friends walked into the courtroom, Nkem was not there. Neither were his friends. 

'Investigating my own case'

After waiting more than an hour, Danyliuk issued a Canada-wide warrant for Nkem's arrest. 

A Saskatoon police spokesperson told reporters that officers believed Nkem was likely on his way back to Nigeria.

Crown prosecutor Rodgers notified officials at Interpol he was a wanted man.

Last month, Sarah's mother contacted Nigerian immigration officials, who said they had never heard of the case.

Sarah is convinced Nkem is still in Canada, protected by the cousins who posted bail for him.

Sarah says she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She credits her dog Kota for giving her a sense of security when she experiences night terrors. (CBC)

She says police have told her and her mother to stop calling, and they have failed repeatedly to follow up on tips she has provided, including possible sightings of Nkem in Calgary and Victoria.

"I was basically investigating my own case," she said.

In March, Sarah emailed a sergeant to ask whether there were any updates in locating Nkem. His picture was no longer posted on the Wanted section of the Saskatoon Police website. 

Sarah says the sergeant assured her Nkem would be added back to the site and promised to email the next day with an update.

That email never came.

In May, Sarah and her mother again requested an update on Nkem, and again there was no reply. 

When CBC News called the Saskatoon Police Service last month to inquire about the status of the search for Nkem, a spokesperson said: "We're not just sitting on the information. We've shared information with other [police] services, certainly." 

Police in Calgary told CBC News they have no record of the Saskatoon Police ever notifying them Nkem could be in Calgary. 

Municipal police in Victoria and the Westshore detachment of the RCMP also said no one from the Saskatoon Police has contacted them. 

'We may never find him'

"We may never find him," Sarah said. "How I see justice now is really by the police acknowledging that they humiliated me and kept re-victimizing me. Made me feel like I was a burden." 

Sarah's mother has called and emailed Saskatoon's mayor and its police commission, opposition politicians and even Saskatchewan's justice minister and premier, Brad Wall, with whom she secured a meeting in October 2015. 

"Saskatchewan must do better by rape victims and more to stop rapists before they strike," Wall wrote in a handwritten response to Sarah, thanking her for her courage. "We will be following up with your mom to further explore how this can be done. 

"I am so sorry for what you have gone through in the system."

In 2015, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall wrote a handwritten response to Sarah, thanking her for her courage and promising to follow up. (CBC)

Sarah's mother said she's called and emailed Wall's office several times since that meeting, but has been ignored.

I'm a huge Brad Wall fan, but this looks like a 'fail' to me.

In September 2016, Sarah's mother was given five minutes in front of the Saskatoon Police Commission to present her concerns about the way the case was handled. 

She said she never received an official response. 

"There's been nothing done," said Sarah's mother. "We're just getting deeper into being pitted against the people that my taxpayer dollars pay to protect and serve."

CBC's calls to the chair of the Saskatoon Police Commission were not returned.

Complaint filed

Sarah and her mother have filed a complaint with Saskatchewan's Public Complaints Commission about police handling of the case. 

They want assurances the police have changed the way they question victims of sexual assault.

And they want an apology for what they see as the dismissive, disrespectful way officers dealt with Sarah and her family over the years.

Sarah said Saskatchewan's ombudsman started looking into the case, but then his term ended and the investigation stalled. She says she's run out of places to turn.

"Nothing has worked so far. There's no accountability — and that has to change," she said.

'You will experience so much more pain by going to the police.'

- "Sarah"

The Saskatoon Police Service and its former chief, Clive Weighill, declined CBC's interview requests.

"The service and its investigators have worked with the complainant and her family over several years as part of this investigation and have also spoken publicly, on several occasions, about past concerns," the service said in an emailed statement to CBC News, adding it could not comment further "in the event that the commission decides to launch a review."

Sarah never was able to complete her university degree. She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and is in counselling while she works as a flight attendant. She says she's regaining control over her life — but she's worried about all the other women who've been in a situation similar to hers.

"Think of how many people have reported sexual assaults since then," she said. "And how many would have been handled the same way as my case was. It's a lot."

She says she regrets having come forward.

"You will experience so much more pain by going to the police," Sarah said. "And so much more trauma. And so much more hurt and humiliation.

"You won't heal by reporting it."

That has to change! Police have to be much more compassionate and considerate of the victims and their needs. Their first need is for the situation to start getting better when they go to the police, otherwise, they will not come and they are not likely to ever get better. 

Their second need is 'hope' that the situation will continue to get better, that justice will be done, that the rapist will be locked up and unable to attack them (or anyone else) again.

Many police forces don't seem to get the extreme trauma that rape and sexual assault causes a woman or a child. If they did, they would not sit idly by while a convicted rapist escapes justice. Speaking of justice, why did the judge allow the creep out on bail after conviction, especially when he and his friends treated the court with such disrespect?

Saskatchewan needs to do better than this!

Teen Girls 'Humiliated' After Sexually Explicit Photos Shared

6 young men who attended a Nova Scotia school will be sentenced in July

By Angela MacIvor, CBC News 

One of the victims in the Bridgewater intimate photo-sharing case says having such a photo shared without consent can destroy trust and affect self-esteem. (Summer Skyes photography/Flickr)

When she sent selfies of her partially naked body, she thought only her boyfriend would see the images.

The teenager never imagined one of the sexually explicit photos would end up being shared with five other boys in a Dropbox account.

"Basically [he] threatened to break up with me if I didn't send him pictures. I was young and naive and just sent them, and then that's what he did with it," she said. "I just think he's a pig."

The young woman is among about 20 other victims, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban. The identities of the six young men who pleaded guilty to sharing intimate images without consent are also protected under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act. The sixth officially entered a guilty plea on April 12.

The case was back in Bridgewater, N.S., provincial court today — but was adjourned until May 9 — to allow defence lawyers more time to review a joint statement of facts. Sentencing is scheduled for July 31.

The young men, who range in age from 15 to 19 years old, were all youths at the time of the offences in 2015. They all attended Bridgewater Junior/Senior High School.

The young woman says her relationship didn't last, but the implications of those images continue to haunt her.

"I definitely wouldn't want this to happen to any other teen girl in high school because I know the impact that it can have," she said.

"Other girls will judge them, make them feel bad about themselves, make them feel like a slut for sending the picture, for trusting the person. It hurts self-esteem and it makes it hard for people to trust each other."

Some of the girls were as young as 13 years old when their pictures were shared.

"They made a lot of girls feel self-conscious or bad about themselves and lose their self-esteem and trust, and they can never get that back. What those guys did was very disrespectful. No matter the age, they should know what they did was wrong," said the young woman.

The photo-sharing case will be back in Bridgewater provincial court today, when lawyers are expected to file the agreed statement of facts. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)

Sentencing options

The boys have agreed to attend educational training, similar to restorative justice. The Crown has said it's waiting to see whether the teenagers show remorse before a sentence is recommended.

The young woman who spoke to CBC News says she doesn't believe "this abuse should be taken lightly."

The six teenagers also faced charges of possession and distribution of child pornography, but those charges were dropped last month.

How Video Evidence can be Used to Determine Girl's Ability to Say No to Sex

How video like this can be 'very powerful' evidence in sexual assault trials

'Any kind of corroboration for a witness who is under the influence is helpful,' ex-prosecutor says

By Laura Fraser, CBC News


Moazzam Tariq, shown here, has been charged with sexual assault. This surveillance tape was submitted to the court as evidence by the Crown. (Submitted)

The black and white video offers a bird's-eye view into what happens in the wee hours at a Toronto club.

A group of men order bottle service and then someone passes a shot to the woman one of them has brought to the booth.

Within 15 minutes, the video shows Moazzam Tariq pour vodka in the woman's mouth three times, slap her butt and then help her to her feet, supporting her as she stumbles across the dance floor and out of the Everleigh at 2:35 a.m. on July 18, 2015.

It looks like a typical night at any downtown club.

    Sexual assault surveillance video 2:47

What's unique about this video, however, is that it was a key piece of evidence in Crown prosecutor Jill Witkin's case against Tariq. The Brampton, Ont., man was charged with sexual assault two weeks after the encounter with the woman, after she reported to police she had no memory of consenting to sex.

On Friday, Tariq was found guilty.

Since alcohol can impair a witness's reliability — their ability to recall exactly what happened — the video provided an independent view for Judge Mara Greene.

In her ruling Friday morning, Greene said the victim appeared "disoriented, confused and incapable of making voluntary, informed decisions."  

During the trial held in Toronto in August, the complainant testified that she had a vague memory of someone, shirtless and on top of her in the hotel room and that she said, "No."

The last thing I want to do is to take the side of the perpetrator here, my sympathies are always with the victim which, when you are dealing with adults, is always the woman. But there are some troubling things about this case and the conclusions that were drawn.

It would be easy if the girl was passed out when they got to the hotel, or if there was a high level of drunkenness that suddenly came upon the girl as a result of drugging. But when she is walking, talking and accompanying a man to a hotel room there seems to be not just an element of functionality, but an attitude of willingness as well.

When a woman accompanies a man to a hotel room, it has been traditionally assumed that she is willing to sleep with the man, otherwise, why wouldn't she just go home? To then say 'No' once she is undressed and in bed with the man seems a bit late. It requires a level of self-control and self-denial that few men I know would be capable of. Self-control and self-denial are not character traits we teach children these days.

Then there is also the element that suggests a man dating or meeting a girl is now responsible for her level of intoxication. Of course, men/boys have always attempted to ply girls with liquor to loosen them up and make them more likely to be willing to have sex. Now, it seems, that the man/boy has to be careful to get the girl drunk enough to have sex but not so drunk as to be unable to consent or even just to forget that she may have consented. And he has to make this judgement when he, himself, has been drinking.

It will soon come down to guys having to record a girl's consent on their cell-phones before they dare jump into bed with them.

At any rate, there needs to be a difference in sentencing from a situation like the one described here and one where it is very clear that consent was not given. 

I hate this drinking until you are blotto that goes on, especially among girls and young women. It leaves them vulnerable, with no ability to control their situation, and completely at the mercy of the character of those she is drinking with. That's not saying girls are responsible for getting raped; it's saying excessive drinking puts girls at much greater risk of being raped. That's not the way it should be, but that is the way it is.

At the hotel

Witkin also submitted as evidence in the trial surveillance video taken from the Thompson Hotel at 2:37 a.m. in which you see Tariq and the then 25-year-old complainant walk into the hotel. His arm is wrapped around her waist and she's leaning heavily against him as the pair enters.

Tariq, 29, checks them into the hotel and they get on the elevator. Video taken inside the elevator shows the woman slumped against the wall, her eyes half open.

Both the prosecution and the defence agree about what happened next. The pair went into a hotel room. In the morning, the woman awoke and "felt violated," Witkin told the court. The results of a sexual assault exam found semen in her vagina that matched that of the accused, according to evidence submitted by the Crown.


The Crown submitted video footage to corroborate the complainant's evidence that she was too intoxicated to consent to sexual contact. (Submitted)

Defence lawyer Danielle Robitaille, who helped represent former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi during his sexual assault trial earlier this year, does not disagree that sex happened.

The question, however, is whether the woman was too intoxicated to be able to consent, something that Witkin argued the video shows and Robitaille disputed.

Reliability and credibility

Ottawa criminal lawyer Michael Spratt said he has never seen this amount of video evidence — almost a half an hour's worth — introduced at a hearing to try to prove that someone could not legally consent to sex.

But Spratt said he expects courts to start seeing more video introduced as evidence, especially in cases where alcohol or other factors might affect a witness's reliability.

"It can be very powerful and very corroborative evidence, depending on what it shows and what inferences can be drawn," he said.

The complainant in this case was open about not having any memory of the events leading up to the encounter in the hotel room.

"She was not one of those witnesses who had a blackout and tried to fill in the blanks in her memory," Witkin said. "She's very fair about what she remembered and what she didn't."

Former prosecutor Karen Bellehumeur said that in this case the Crown was essentially using video evidence to fill in the gaps.

"When you have to rely on a witness who is intoxicated, there's always the argument that they're not reliable," said the lawyer who now specializes in civil litigation in sexual abuse cases. "Any kind of corroboration for a witness who is under the influence is helpful."

Legally, the prosecution still has to prove that there was an absence of consent, but there's "a shift" in attitude from "no means no, to yes means yes," Bellehumeur said.

Accused didn't testify

Tariq did not testify during the four-day trial in provincial court.

His lawyer said in her closing argument that when it comes to consent, the judge needed to consider a complainant's ability to make conscious decisions — and not outward symptoms of intoxication.

"There is no requirement in law that a complainant be able to walk a straight line to consent to sex," Robitaille told the judge. "The requirement is that they appreciate the sexual nature and they have the ability to decline if they wish."

Robitaille had argued that the video shows the complainant was able to send text messages and keep track of her phone and purse, which indicates she was functioning at a level where she was aware of what was happening.

Family GP with Huge Cache of Child Porn so Disgusting You Can't Even Imagine

Pervert family GP caught with 850,000 sickening sex abuse images

 of children, animals and corpses

BY OLIVER PRITCHARD

Dr. Michael Kennedy faces a lengthy prison sentence after he managed to avoid detection over a 10 year period, a court heard

A family doctor will be sentenced after he was caught with nearly 850,000 sex abuse images of children, animals and corpses.

Dr Michael Kennedy faces a lengthy prison sentence after he managed to avoid detection over a 10 year period, a court heard.

The 52-year-old married man's "colossal" hoard included 10 extreme images involving a dog and two with corpses.

Prosecutor Anthea Harris told Peterborough magistrates' court: "There are 2002 images at category A, 6737 at category B and 839,349 at category C.

"Category A is the most serious category on the scale.

"The crown say the starting point for offences of this type is one year in custody, but his is aggravated by the colossal number of images, and further aggravated by the extreme pornography, and the lengthy time of the offences - they were over a 10 year period.

"We say this case is so serious it should be dealt with at Crown Court who have greater sentencing powers."


Kennedy worked as a senior partner at the Millfield Medical Centre in Peterborough, Cambs., (pictured) before the allegations surfaced

Simon Milburn, defending, agreed, and said the case was suitable for crown court.

In total Kennedy, of Peakirk, Cambs., pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of children at Peterborough magistrates' court on Thursday.

He also confessed to one count possessing prohibited images of a child and two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images and one count of possessing extreme images that were likely to cause serious injury to a person's private parts.

The images do not relate to any patients or anyone connected to the surgery.

Kennedy worked as a senior partner at the Millfield Medical Centre in Peterborough, Cambs., before the allegations surfaced.

He was supported by family and friends during the hearing, who sat in the public gallery.

His case has been sent to crown court for sentencing.