Paying drug debt with gun lands man in jail

According to his lawyer, Steven Douglas James Mychan was a “meth head” living in a “meth house” when he trafficked an SKS rifle to a man who was under police surveillance.

Police were watching Noel Harder — a member of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle Club at the time — as part of a drug and gun investigation called Project Forseti. Mychan was photographed giving the gun to Harder in a back alley in Saskatoon on March 28, 2014, court heard during Mychan’s sentencing hearing on Friday.

Minutes later, police pulled Harder over and discovered nine guns hidden under a tarp in the back of his truck. One was the rifle from Mychan, federal Crown prosecutor Lynn Hintz said.

Harder became a police agent for Project Forseti in September 2014 and told police that Mychan was paying off a drug debt with the gun, court heard. Harder’s gun charges were dropped in exchange for his work with police.

Mychan, 44, pleaded guilty in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench to unlawfully transferring a firearm. Justice Mona Dovell accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence, imposing a one-year jail sentence consecutive to the two-year sentence he is currently serving on gun and drug charges.

Mychan’s motivation to get clean and live a better life is his young son, who was abandoned by his drug-addicted mother, defence lawyer George Combe said. He told court Mychan has taken substance abuse and cognitive skills programs while in jail, showing a change in attitude and behaviour.

He regrets every day he took drugs because it has prevented him from holding his son, Combe said.