ATHABASCA - A young man from Calling Lake is hoping work with a restorative justice program will help him get his life back on track after he pleaded guilty to breaking into a lakeside cabin late last year.
Albert Raymond Gladue, 26, accepted a 45-day time served custodial sentence as part of a joint submission between Crown prosecutor Matthew Kerr and defence counsel Robert Gladu. As part of the plea, additional charges for obstruction, possession of a dangerous weapon and mischief damage were withdrawn.
On Nov. 4, 2024, Gladue trespassed onto a Calling Lake property. Despite a homeowner addressing him, Gladue proceeded to walk over towards a neighbouring, unoccupied cabin, and broke in.
After the RCMP arrived an hour later, Gladue attempted to flee and was arrested after a short foot pursuit.
Kerr and Gladu stressed the restorative nature of the sentence, which will see Gladue work with the Bigstone Restorative Justice program post-release instead of the traditional probationary path.
“On one hand, we have a prolific type of crime being break and enter in unoccupied cabins that is frequent in Calling Lake and needs to be denounced and deterred,” said Kerr.
“Balanced against this, he has a lot of mitigating factors, and the historic problems we’ve had with First Nations individuals being overrepresented.”
Kerr pointed to the withdrawn firearms charge as an example. On Sept. 1, 2024, Gladue was walking through Calling Lake with a lever action rifle that was later found to be non-functional through testing. While the public didn’t know that, and still saw a man walking through their community with a weapon, Kerr said it didn’t necessarily make sense to add to Gladue’s incarceration period.
“While he shouldn’t have had that thing, I thought to myself that this was a time I could make a difference in a positive way on that individuals life. He’s not a person we see in the system that often in Athabasca,” said Kerr.
“Credit to him, he’s done well on release, which is exactly what I like to see when someone’s out in the community.”
While Gladue waived his right to the pre-sentence report he is entitled to as an Indigenous person, his lawyer did share some of the complicated factors that led down this path.
After in the last few years losing family members, Gladu said his client lacked the skills to properly deal with it and the criminal cases had come about as a result. Before then, Gladue had no criminal record, and had since been dealing well with his effective house arrest.
“With some community involvement and the restorative justice program, Albert can become a more productive member of the community rather than a statistic. That would be more meaningful rather than probation,” said Gladu.
Justice Carrie-Ann Downey accepted the joint submission, noting it agreed with all the relevant factors and boded well for Gladue’s future.
“You don’t seem like the kind of person who wants to be here,” said Justice Downey.
“You don’t want to be a criminal, you don’t want to commit crimes. There is an overabundance of (Indigenous) people in our system. You can stop yourself from being part of that system any longer, and I’m sure you want that for yourself and your family wants it for you.”
