Senk’lip convicted of gun smuggling at Osoyoos border
It took a jury in Penticton just two hours — including a lunch break — to convict a man Monday on nine charges related to an attempt to smuggle two handguns across the Canada-U.S. border at Osoyoos.
Senk’lip, who was charged as Alex Louie, but referred to in court by the name of his choosing, represented himself during the five-day trial last week.
Jurors heard how border guards found the guns tied to the frame of his car when he attempted to enter Canada around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2017.
Senk’lip, who has been in custody ever since, briefly hung his head, then drank a glass of water and stared at the floor as the nine verdicts were read into the court record.
Two of the offences carry with them a mandatory minimum of three years in prison, and Justice Arne Silverman indicated that’s the penalty he’s likely to pronounce when the proceedings recommence on Dec. 21.
“At this point, I haven’t heard anything that would cause me to give you more than three years,” the judge told him.
Senk’lip, however, noted the so-called Gladue factors, which tend to decrease sentences for Indigenous offenders due to residual socioeconomic impacts of colonization and residential schools.
And while Silverman suggested it’s settled law that Gladue factors have no effect on mandatory minimum sentences, he nonetheless adjourned the matter until Dec. 21 so Senk’lip can consider his position.
Before and during the trial, Senk’lip put forth a variety of novel defences, including arguing the court didn’t have jurisdiction over him because his people don’t have a treaty with Canada and suggesting Indigenous people have the right to pass freely over the border as they did before the invisible line was created.
But in his charge to the jurors, Silverman told them to reject those defences because they are not valid in law.
“We’ve all had the experience of crossing over the border and sometimes they ask a lot of questions and sometimes they don’t — but nowhere does that create a perpetual right for me to come and go without stopping for examination or search,” the judge said.