A Lacombe man will have to wait longer to find out his sentence for a violent robbery after the Court of Queen’s Bench Justice learned of the man’s First Nation status on Thursday.
Kirk Sisson said he was unaware that Travis James Kastrukoff, 23, had First Nations status because it didn’t come up at the time he was found guilty following a jury trial last December.
Defence lawyer Walter Kubanek said he thought the information had previously been provided.
Kastrukoff was convicted of robbing a young man, whose name is protected under a court-ordered publication ban, on July 17, 2010.
The victim, who was 19 at last December’s trial, was robbed and kicked and hit in the head by a group of people in Lacombe.
Carl Johnston, Andrew Dennis Renaud, Brian Travis Ward and an 18-year-old woman, who was a youth at the time, have either pleaded guilty or were convicted for their involvement in the incident.
The matter has been set over to 10 a.m. during the July 13 arraignments of Court of Queen’s Bench matters.
At that time, it’s hoped a new sentencing date can be set for later this year.
Sisson told Kubanek that Kastrukoff could waive his First Nations rights or otherwise the court would have to consider the Gladue principles approved in March.
After a brief adjournment, Kubanek returned to say his client wanted further examination on how his native heritage may impact sentencing.
In March, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Gladue principles also applies to breaches of long-term supervision orders.
The Gladue principles are rules set by Parliament on aboriginal sentencing.
The justices said the issue of aboriginal background must be considered even in cases where the accused have been placed under long-term supervision by the courts.
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“To be clear, courts must take judicial notice of such matters as the history of colonialism, displacement and residential schools and how that history continues to translate into lower educational attainment, lower incomes higher unemployment, higher rates of substance abuse and suicide and, of course, higher levels of incarceration for Aboriginal Peoples,” Justice Louis LeBel wrote. “Failing to take these circumstances into account would violate the fundamental principle of sentencing.”