Life in a Banana State

Reading the notice of appeal below that was filed this week by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, one might assume that this federal agency is questioning the somewhat lenient sentence that Sona received with his misleading “robo calls”.

Ottawa – December 15, 2014 – Today, in the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada filed a Notice of Appeal against sentence, in R. v. Sona.

The Notice of Appeal was filed on the basis that the sentence imposed by the trial judge is demonstrably unfit and fails to reflect the gravity of the offence.

Mr. Sona was charged on April 2, 2013, with wilfully preventing or endeavouring to prevent an elector, in Guelph, from voting in the 2011 federal general election, contrary to section 281(g) of the Canada Elections Act.

This resulted in Mr. Sona committing an offence contrary to section 491(3)(d) of the Act.

Mr. Sona was found guilty on August 14, 2014 and sentenced on November 19, 2014 to nine months in prison plus 12 months of probation.

However when you read the role of the Prosecutor it is less clear that the purpose of this appeal is to question the leniency of the sentence, but rather the severity.

The role of prosecutor excludes any notion of winning or losing; his function is a matter of public duty than which in civil life there can be none charged with greater personal responsibility. It is to be efficiently performed with an ingrained sense of the dignity, the seriousness and the justness of judicial proceedings.

Since the judge in his ruling has laid open the idea that Sona could not have acted alone and appears to be a small player in the act, the appeal could be that his sentence was too harsh.

Although this may be one of my tin foil hat moments, I live in Harper Land and my guess is that Sona can now expect to serve no time, nor have a criminal record, as long as he continues to keep his mouth shut.