Judge demands Indigenous sentencing report after offender claims he’s ‘Caucasian’: ‘He is plainly not’

The Yellowknife courthouse on March 28, 2023. A Yellowknife judge has insisted a man who claimed to be Caucasian get a report meant for Indigenous offenders before he sentences him for breaking into a hotel. Photo by Emily Blake /The Canadian Press

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A Yellowknife judge has insisted a man who claimed to be Caucasian get a report meant for Indigenous offenders before he sentences him for breaking into a hotel.

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Jeremy Kuneyuna — who already has 90 convictions — appeared in the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories recently to be sentenced for breaking into a hotel.

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“Mr. Kuneyuna states that he is ‘Caucasian’ and on that basis has provided no information relating to case specific factors relating to his background as an indigenous offender,” Judge Robert David Gorin wrote in an April 22 decision.

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“When I asked him about why he had an Inuit surname, he provided no meaningful response. Also, he is plainly not Caucasian. Rather, his background is indigenous. I will say that I know this from dealings I have had with Mr. Kuneyuna in previous court proceedings.”

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Kuneyuna pleaded guilty to the hotel break-in and represented himself in court.

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“He joins with the Crown in submitting that a six-month term of imprisonment would be appropriate,” Gorin said.

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“He has a criminal record containing approximately 90 criminal convictions over half of which are property related with approximately a dozen of those being for break and enter offences.”

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But the judge didn’t accept that sentencing recommendation.

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“In my view, regardless of the ‘joint submission’ provided by Mr. Kuneyuna and the Crown, his erroneous position as to his heritage does not amount to a waiver of the need for this court to make the inquiry as to his background factors that are required by the cases of Gladue and Ipeelee,” Gorin said. “I require more information than he is prepared to provide me. While I do not require a complete pre-sentence report, I do require a report that provides me with his background factors as an indigenous offender.”

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Gladue and Ipeelee are both landmark Supreme Court of Canada decisions that require sen­ten­cing judges to con­sider the unique cir­cum­stances of Indi­gen­ous offend­ers to address their overrep­res­ent­a­tion in Canada’s pris­ons. They require judges to take the impact of colonialism, residential schools and intergenerational trauma into account when sentencing Indigenous offenders.

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According to the 2012 Supreme Court of Canada decision on Ipeelee, “counsel have a duty to bring that individualized information before the court in every case, unless the offender expressly waives his right to have it considered,” Gorin said in his recent decision on Kuneyuna.

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“In current practice, it appears that case-specific information is often brought before the court by way of a Gladue report, which is a form of pre-sentence report tailored to the specific circumstances of Aboriginal offenders. Bringing such information to the attention of the judge in a comprehensive and timely manner is helpful to all parties at a sentencing hearing for an Aboriginal offender, as it is indispensable to a judge in fulfilling his duties.”