May be time to increase drug trafficking sentences, says Yellowknife judge

A Yellowknife judge says it may be necessary to increase jail sentences for people caught selling hard drugs in the city.

Judge Brian Bruser made the comment on Friday, while sentencing a 33-year-old woman for selling cocaine and marijuana.

In August2015, Aimee Shermet sold a gram of cocaine and seven grams of marijuana to undercover police officers. She was one of eight people charged last September as a result of an undercover RCMP investigation.

"Despite the high risks, people continue to trafficdrugs in Yellowknife," Bruser said.

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The veteran Yellowknife judge now a deputy judge said the large amount of undercover work the RCMP's drug section does in the city, along with criminal charges and convictions, don't seem to be deterring new dealers from rushing in to fill the vacuum whenever one is taken off the streets.

"It may be that the time has come to increase the severity of sentences for trafficking," said Bruser, noting he was referring to the sale of hard drugs, such as cocaine.

Bruser said judges in Yellowknifehave spoken many times about the scourge of cocaine in the city and the snowball effect it has, leading to increases in thefts, break and enters, homicides, broken families and destroyed lives.

Shermet, a first-time offender, was sentenced to eight months in jail and 18 months probation. She said she was "deeply sorry" for her actions remorse the judge accepted as sincere.

But Bruser disagreed with the prosecutor's suggestion that Shermet's dealing was motivated by the social scene she was part of, rather than greed.

When Shermet was making the deals, she told the undercover RCMP she had "expensive habits" and could "hook them up" with whatever they wanted. She made the deals while working as a waitress at a downtown restaurant.

After agreeing to sell the one gram of cocaine, she offered to sell them three.

"This is not the behavior of a new drug trafficker," Bruser said.