Dangerous-offender hearing told convict mostly ‘stable’

One of Ronald Teneycke’s former probation officers told a judge Tuesday he was startled by the physical toll that drug addiction took on his client.

“I witnessed drastic and rapid weight loss in Mr. Teneycke’s physical appearance, which, in my experience, coincides with a stimulant use,” Mike Kent testified at Teneycke’s dangerous-offender hearing in provincial court in Penticton.

“Over a short period, approximately no more than two months, I witnessed about a 70-pound weight loss on Mr. Teneycke.”

Kent said his client initially denied he was using drugs, and instead attributed the weight loss to him not eating as a result of stress due to his mother being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Teneycke’s physical transformation happened near the end of the 16-month period that Kent supervised him before being transferred to Kelowna in March 2014.

The probation officer described Teneycke, now 55, as “stable” for the most part, “but prone to angry outbursts” if pressed to discuss personal matters or details of past offences.

Kent also said his client was “superficially compliant” with the 18 conditions, such as a requirement to get counselling, attached to two probation orders by which he was bound at the time.

Teneycke was resistant to drug counselling, Kent recalled, because “he felt that it wasn’t necessary or he had matters under control,” and rejected attempts to enrol him in a sex-offender treatment program because “he was not being supervised for such matters and . . . did not want to discuss them in any way.”

However, the probation officer also said Teneycke, who claims Metis heritage, did express an interest in trying Indigenous healing practices, such as sweat lodges, but never followed through with one hosted by the Penticton Indian band.

“I recall him stating that he was not wanting to attend because the individuals there were consuming alcohol when the lodge was built, and therefore there was bad spirits connected to that place,” Kent said.

Under cross-examination, defence counsel Michael Welsh suggested there were other reasons why Teneycke couldn’t attend the sweat lodge — namely, his reputation.

“Were you aware that at one point the Penticton Indian band refused to have him at their sweat lodge?” Welsh asked. “No, I was not,” Kent replied. Testimony from Kent, who was the Crown’s last witness at the hearing, was intended to show Teneycke is not a good candidate to be released back into the community.

The hearing is now scheduled to resume Nov. 27, when Welsh may call a medical expert to testify about Teneycke’s recent leukemia diagnosis.

Judge Richard Hewson seemed puzzled by the point of that exercise, noting Teneycke is facing a lengthy prison term, regardless of whether he’s declared a dangerous offender.

“It seems that (prison) is where he’s going to be going, and what — practically speaking — what difference is the medical opinion going to be to me in making that decision?” Hewson asked.

Welsh replied that if Teneycke’s prognosis is poor, “there may be no particular point in him being designated.”

A dangerous-offender designation carries with it three possible penalties: an indeterminate sentence with no chance of parole for at least seven years; a regular jail sentence followed by a maximum 10-year supervision order; or a regular jail sentence.

The hearing was launched after Teneycke confessed to a July 2015 crime spree that included robbing an Oliver store at gunpoint and later shooting a man to steal his truck.

Teneycke’s criminal record dates back to 1981.