Jail time reduced for Indigenous man who fired seven shots
An Indigenous man convicted of possessing a loaded firearm and other offences has had his sentence reduced from six to five years.
The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled the trial judge did not give sufficient consideration to Coda Dayne Gheslain Hiscock’s Indigenous background before sentencing
“The judge failed to give tangible effect to the serious systemic issues and background factors (that) are applicable to the appellant’s life, and so erred in principle in his application of the Criminal Code,” the appeal court justices ruled.
Given credit for time already served by Hiscock, he was ordered to spend an additional 681 days in jail from the time the appeal court issued its decision on Dec. 4.
On March, 10, 2018, Hiscock fired at least seven shots from a semi-automatic firearm from the inside of a Kelowna home. Three shots hit an unoccupied car outside, and others damaged walls and fixtures.
The trial judge found Hiscock had used methamphetamines earlier on the day of the offences and the evidence “strongly indicated that he was high at the time that he shot off the firearm, and possibly in a psychotic or manic state.”
Hiscock, 33, has a criminal record that includes property offences, drug offences, and some violent offences, the Court of Appeal noted.
Under the Gladue principle outlined in the Criminal Code, judges must give special consideration to an offender’s Indigenous background before pronouncing sentence.
“To be clear, courts must take judicial notice of such matters as the history of colonialism, displacement and residential schools and how that history continues to translate into lower educational attainment, lower incomes, higher rates of substance abuse, and of course higher levels of incarceration for Aboriginal people,” the appeal court has previously ruled.
Hiscock’s mother was a member of the Ojibwe First Nation. When he was 28, he found her dead of a drug overdose. One of his brothers was murdered, as was his girlfriend.
He committed the firearms-related offences six months after his girlfriend was murdered.
“Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, Coda experienced a childhood that included many of the features of Indigenous people in Canada, including being a witness to, and a victim of physical and emotional abuse, insecurity, instability, an early exposure to alcohol and drug abuse and a general loss of his cultural heritage,” reads part of a pre-sentence report on Hiscock to which the appeal court ruled the trial judge had given insufficient regard.