Man receives 60-day sentence for family violence incident

BARRHEAD - A man with an extensive criminal record and involved in a domestic violence incident in mid-May received a three-month jail sentence.

However, due to the time he has already spent in custody, he effectively received a one-day sentence.

On June 25, Justice Carrie-Ann Downey sentenced Earl Shane Ladouceur to 60 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to assault, accepting a joint Crown-defence submission.

Ladouceur has been in custody for 39 actual days, and with enhanced time, he was credited with serving just over 58 days.

She said that as it is a joint submission, she must follow the Anthony-Cook Supreme Court of Canada ruling when deciding whether to accept it and whether the sentence is fit and appropriate.

"That means that if the submission is outside the range, that would be shocking to the community, and while it is on the lower end given the criminal record, it is not so outside the range to be considered shocking to the community." 

The facts

Crown prosecutor Brett Grierson said on May 18, 2024, Barrhead RCMP responded to a 911 hangup call.

When they arrived, police talked to the accused's sister, who said she had rushed to her mother's home because she said that the accused was there and that "he was going crazy."

Grierson said when the sister arrived, "a verbal argument broke out" between the siblings, which then got physical.

"[He hit his sister] on the side of her face with a closed fist. He then grabbed her around the neck and pushed her shoved her back towards the rear entrance of the home," he said, adding that the siblings were separated by their mother, after which Ladouceur fled the residence.

Grierson added that the accused later returned to his mother's residence and was arrested by police without incident.

He said several factors influenced the Crown's decision to seek 60 days of incarceration.

On the mitigating side, Grierson said, was Ladouceur's early plea, but on the aggravating side was the accused's extensive criminal record with roughly 70 convictions, including nine involving violence.

"This is an individual who has been before this court before and received jail sentences for assaults," he said.

The defence

Ladouceur's lawyer, Nicole Ashlee Kirby, said her client takes full responsibility for his actions, as demonstrated by his early guilty plea less than a month after the incident.

She added that many of Ladouceur's problems involving the justice system could be traced to "Gladue issues."

Often, the court asks for a Gladue pre-sentencing report that helps courts consider the multitude of factors that can lead an Indigenous person to become in conflict with the law. 

However, in this case, a Gladue report was not conducted.

Kirby said her client's grandparents and father attended residential schools.

"Mr. Ladouceur advises me his parents were essentially without any skills, which resulted from Gladue's factors, such as his grandparents not learning how to be parents," she said. "He describes his parents as children having children."

As a result, she said, Ladouceur experienced many different kinds of abuse growing up and had no stability in his life.

Kirby later added that her client was forced to move out of his parent's home when he was 12.

"He became homeless and essentially became involved in an unenviable life, which led to him spending the majority of his adult life in custody," she said.

Kirby said her client got into an argument with his mother on the day in question, adding that Ladouceur had gone to his mother's house because he was distraught about the death of his 22-year-old son, who passed away from a drug overdose.

"He believed his mother was being hypocritical; she was using drugs. Mr. Ladouceur, on the other hand, was drinking, and an argument ensued about that," she said.

Justice Downey said while she did not have a Gladue report, there were undoubtedly Gladue factors involved. 

"Hearing incidents of generational trauma, abuse of Mr. Ladouceur and the loss of his son is heartbreaking," she said.

Ladouceur, who appeared via closed-circuit TV from the Edmonton Remand Centre, said while he was not trying to excuse his actions, the impact of his son's death significantly contributed to his state of mind, which caused him to react the way he did.

"I'm really ashamed to be before the court again," he said. "When I lost my son to fentanyl in November, I was incarcerated, and I wasn't in an environment to properly mourn for my child."

He added that he took it so poorly when he tried to talk to his mother about what he was going through.

"I tried to open up to her, and she criticized me for drinking, and I got offended by that since we lost my brother in 2015 to something similar, and she buried herself in narcotics," Ladouceur said.

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com