Quote:
Originally Posted by MBates
Courts must look into whether the offender's aboriginal background did in fact have anything to do with their offending and what a fit sentence should be. They do not have to give any reduction whatsoever if it is not warranted.
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This is technically not true, at least in Alberta:
1. An offender is not required to establish a causal link between background factors and the commission of the current offence before being entitled to have those matters considered by the sentencing judge
R. v. Laboucane
2016 ABCA 176, 2016 CarswellAlta 1072, [2016] A.W.L.D. 3063, [2016] A.W.L.D. 3071, [2016] A.W.L.D. 3072, [2016] A.J. No. 593
at para 63
The sentence still has to be warranted but if the aboriginal background has nothing to do with the particular offence, they still have to consider it as a factor.