Thanks for the update, Northern Piper. Hope some good can come of this, for the people directly involved and for the community itself.
Spoons, my understanding from the press reports is that the judge has raised the possibility of sitting in La Loche when she gives her decision, but has asked for community input on whether the community would want that, hence comments from the mayor.
As Muffin mentions, La Loche doesn’t have a courthouse or normal holding facilities for an accused standing trial, so most of the proceedings have been in Meadow Lake.
I understand now. Thanks, NP and Muffin!
The reason the OK bombing case was moved (to Denver, if I recall correctly) was because of the difficulty of empanelling an impartial jury in Oklahoma.
That’s not the issue here. The judge’s comments about holding the sentencing in La Loche are based on the principle that justice should be carried out as close to the affected community as possible. Moving the sentencing to Regina is technically possible, I suppose, as the Youth Court has jurisdiction throughout the province, but would run against the principle that the affected community should have as much access to the trial as possible.
However, there’s been a development: the Crown prosecutor was just appointed to the Provincial Court, which means that the sentencing hearing set for today had to be adjourned.
Sentencing hearing delayed again after prosecutor in La Loche shooting named a judge
And the judge has given her decision. The accused will be sentenced as an adult, meaning a life sentence. Parole eligibility will likely be lower than the 25 years an adult gets. Maybe 10, according to this news item:
Good.
Sentencing yesterday. Was sentenced to life in prison, no parole ineligibility for 10 years.
La Loche, Sask., shooter apologizes as he gets life sentence, no parole eligibility for 10 years
Good. That will give him a chance to mature and to pull up his socks.
The guy is a convicted mass murderer, and they still can’t even name him? What a joke. The other joke is his “apology”.
And another update: accused has appealed his sentence to the Court of Appeal.
I wonder if the appellant’s goal is to be placed in an environment that offers him a better chance at rehabilitation, or if he just wants another shot at getting less than 10 years?
The Supreme Court of Canada has come out with a tremendous parallel decision in a couple of human rights cases cases that says it is OK for law societies (the bodies that govern lawyers in Canada) to not accredit a Christian law school that has been discriminating based on sex by specifically prohibiting sex outside of straight marriages, contrary to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. No accreditation for you, Trinity Western, until you start following the law that you are teaching. Let’s hope that your institution, your faculty, and your staff learn to respect people rather than discriminate against them.️
https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2018/2018scc33/2018scc33.html https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2018/2018scc32/2018scc32.html
Kudos to the law societies of British Columbia and Ontario for standing up for human rights. 
Did you mean to put this here? Please open another thread if you want to continue.
Sorry, Loach. I had intended to put it in Canadope Cafe 2018.
An update.
Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld the sentence as an adult a month ago. The Court split, 2-1.
Defence counsel has announced that they will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Thanks for the update, Northern Piper.
Interesting issues that I could the the SCC taking up.
And the SCC denied leave today.
Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear Saskatchewan shooter’s sentencing appeal
Thanks for posting, Northern Piper. Nice to know that the matter has come to an end and that the killer will be locked away for life unless he can rehabilitate, but I wish that people sentenced as adults were to have the same opportunities for treatment that people sentenced as youth have.
Coincidentally, one of our ski school members from those days who was a friend of Adam’s and in the same uni program learned today that her M.A. thesis received the holy vorpal seal of approval. He would have been delighted. Life skis on.
I realize this is an old comment, but I think this is something worth discussing. Maybe even worth it’s own thread, but who knows. There’s probably been one in the past.
While I absolutely see the benefit of sharing names of convicted killers, I wonder how that plays into the media sensationalizing them. I’m guessing this guy’s name is withheld due to Canadian laws (I’ve only lived in the US), but here in the US, you learn about killers via their actual names (Ted Bundy) or a media-given name (BTK, Unabomber, etc). I feel this kinda serves to sensationalize them to such a degree that many seek this attention out and perform these acts purely for the fame. I’m not saying that leaving them unnamed would totally prevent killing sprees or mass murders, but I still think it’s something worth thinking about…
Now that he’s exhausted his appeals and the conviction as an adult stands, his name is public.
‘Don’t shoot me’: Complete chilling account of La Loche mass shooting now public
(graphic details warning)
The reason for the restriction is that the name of a young person accused of a crime and tried in the youth system is not allowed to be public. The accused in this case was tried as an adult, over his objections, and that was the basis for the appeal. Since there was a possibility that the trial decision would be overturned and he would instead be sentenced as a young person, the publication ban on his name was maintained. The appeals have confirmed the trial decision, so now his name is public.