QIKIQTARJUAQ — At a recent meeting in Qikiqtarjuaq, hunters blasted wildlife officials for shu

IQALUIT — When Justice Robert Kilpatrick sentences Mary Deschenes of Iqaluit today for driving a 13-centimetre knife through her live-in boyfriend’s heart, he must make a tough choice between two radically different views.

At a sentencing hearing March 2, Crown prosecutor Richard Meredith urged Kilpatrick to impose a three to four year prison sentence on the the 40-year-old Deschenes.

Defence lawyer Susan Cooper, on the other hand, said Deschenes should do no time in jail, and that Kilpatrick ought to impose a suspended sentence with a lengthy period of probation.

Both lawyers cited the Supreme Court of Canada’s well-known Gladue decision to support their arguments.

That landmark case, which involves a 19-year-old Cree woman who pleaded guilty to manslaughter after stabbing her boyfriend to death, requires sentencing judges to give special consideration to the backgrounds of aboriginal offenders, and to consider sentences that are “appropriate” to their cultures and communities.

The woman, Jamie Tanis Gladue of Nanaimo, B.C., received a three-year prison sentence for the crime. Although the Supreme Court didn’t alter the length of Gladue’s prison term in their 1999 decision, they said the trial judge erred in not giving weight to her aboriginal background.

Saying he doesn’t want to make “an off-the-cuff” decision, Kilpatrick reserved Deschenes’ sentencing until this morning, which is two days after Nunatsiaq News press-time this week.

After an alcohol-soaked birthday celebration at the Navigator Inn and the Royal Canadian Legion on April 22, 1999, Deschene’s boyfriend, 34-year-old Gilles Bergeron, wound up dead after the couple had returned to the housing association unit they shared in south Iqaluit.

Emergency medical workers found Bergeron’s body lying face-up in Deschene’s porch, his feet pointed towards the door.

In a trial that began last October, a forensic pathologist testified a knife has been driven so deeply into Begeron’s chest it left hilt-marks around the edges of the wound.

A six-woman, six-man jury eventually found Deschenes guilty of manslaughter.

After dealing with a variety of preliminary issues, lawyers made their final sentencing decisions last Friday, at a hearing held inside Iqaluit’s Astro Theatre.

Cooper reminded Kilpatrick that the Gladue decision requires him to consider two issues: the “systemic” or background factors that led to Deschenes’ offence, and the kind of sentence that might be appropriate within the community of Iqaluit.

Waving her hand around the make-shift courtroom set up inside a conference room at the Astro Theatre, Cooper pointed out that Deschenes has the support of a large family who can be counted on to assist in her rehabilitation.

Deschenes’ family members took up virtually ever seat in the room.

“The family is a rather close unit,” Cooper said.

In laying out the systemic factors that affected Deschene’s life growing up in Iqaluit, Cooper said the woman’s childhood was scarred by violence, abuse, and the traumatic loss of her father.

Throughout all that, Deschenes was a source of strength to other family members, Cooper said, offering protection to younger siblings who were in violent situations.

She said Deschenes often suffered in silence. “Mary often shut down her feelings in response to violence,” Cooper said.

Instead, Cooper said, Deschenes often dealt with her pain by drinking heavily, a habit that affected her relationships with men throughout her life.

Despite all that, Deschenes worked for most of her life, raised several children, and is now grandmother to two children. And even now Deschenes provides shelter to homeless relatives and friends.

She said Deschenes has accepted “criminal responsibility” for Bergeron’s death.

Referring to a social worker’s report that said Deschenes showed little emotion or remorse, Cooper said, “It’s clear Mary does not wear her emotions on her sleeve.”

Crown prosecutor Richard Meredith acknowledged a long list of mitigating factors that stand in Deschenes’ favour, including the fact that she has no criminal record, benefits from strong family support, and has complied with the terms of the court order that allowed her to stay out of jail while awaiting trial.

But Meredith said Deschenes has “taken no responsibility for this crime.”

He said that Jamie Tannis Gladue, who received three years in jail for stabbing her boyfriend, had attended alcohol abuse counselling and had upgraded her education while she was out on bail.

Deschenes, on the other hand, still appears to be in a deep state of denial about her alcohol problem, Meredith said.

“She has not taken serious steps to deal with these issues,” Meredith said.

“Her continual denial of responsibility and the absence of taking any steps should contribute to the court’s assessment.”

He told Kilpatrick that, because of this, Deschenes is not a good candidate for a conditional sentence.

Meredith also called Sylvia Sharpe of Rankin Inlet, Bergeron’s wife, to give evidence about the loss caused by his death.

Sharpe said Bergeron was a “good husband” during the two years that they lived together and only threatened violence after she left him. The couple had a child together, who is now five years old and is now fatherless.

Meredith also cited several other manslaughter sentencing decisions in Nunavut that saw convicted offenders going to jail for periods of four to six years.

He said courts in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have always given a lot of weight to the principles of denunciation and deterrence when sentencing people convicted of manslaughter

“The court has to give some weight to the fact that he has a five-year-old child,” Meredith said.