Shorter sentence offers offender chance to appeal deportation

P.E.I.'s Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence of a mansent to jail for assaultinga woman, in part, to give him a chance to remain in Canada.

Ivan Kljajic, 34, got into an argument with a woman he knew in August 2016. He grabbed her hair, slapped her face, restrained her, and held a knife to her throat. She managed to escape.

According to court documents, he turned the knife on himself and inflicted a "three-to-four inchscratch" on his abdomen.

Kljajicwas sentenced in provincial court in December to nine months in jail after he pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon.

Automatic deportation

Under Canadian law, an immigrant withpermanent resident status who is sentenced to more than six months will be deported. If the sentence is less than six months, the deportation can be appealed.

According to the Appeal Court decision, Canadian Border Services wrote a report thatKljajiccouldn't stay in the country because of his jail sentence. SoKljajicappealed his sentence.

A panel of three judges inP.E.I.'s Court of Appeal heard the case in September.

Appeal arguments

The Crown told the court reducing the sentence from nine months to six would be "too great a reduction" and would"create a two-tiered system, where a permanent residentwould be deserving ofa lesser sentence for the same offence."

Kljajic's lawyer told the court that at the time of the assault,Kljajicwas suffering from depression, exhaustion, and was on medication. He was treated in hospital for two weeks after the assault.

According to a pre-sentence report, he could be suffering fromPTSD.

Kljajicwas born in Bosnia and moved to Croatia at the age of ten, when the civil war broke out.

He became a permanent resident of Canada two years ago.

According to court documents the victim of the assault required surgery and was off work for close to two months.

'A serious assault'

"There is no doubt the offence was a serious assault and no doubt the victim suffered greatly," said Justice John Mitchell in a written decision, on behalf of the three-judge panel.

While nine months is an appropriate sentence for this type of assault, Mitchell wrote, the courts didn't consider the collateralconsequencesof his deportation, that Kljajic hadno previous criminal record, "has shown great remorse" and that at the time of the assault, he was being treated for depression. The judge also said the sentence was "at the high end of the range" forsimilaroffences.

Court heard that since his sentence, Kljajichas met with a mental health therapist and an anger management group,completed a substance abuse program, has remained sober and found full time work.

Mitchell reduced the sentence to six months less a day. The other conditions imposed at his sentencing, including 30 months of probation, remain.

The decision allows Kljajic to appeal his deportation.

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