Alex Zoltan of True North reported on April 11, 2025 that an indigenous man found guilty of participating in the biggest fentanyl lab bust in Canadian history will seek a reduced sentence on 'Gladue' grounds.
His brother has already received a reduced sentence for his part in the commission of that crime, using that sentencing principle. The sentencing judge in that case found that his indigenous background included “intergenerational trauma” — presumably because an ancestor had attended a residential school.
First, what is fentanyl, and why is it a problem?
Fentanyl is a drug that has become a major killer of Canadians and Americans in recent years. Canadians, who were in a panic about the deaths that occurred during the COVID pandemic, have hardly noticed that far more otherwise healthy Canadians and Americans are dying from fentanyl overdoses, than ever died from COVID.
A grim milestone was reached when opioid overdose deaths exceeded 100,000 per year in the United States in 2021. Well over a million Americans have died from opioid overdoses since the highly addictive drugs first came on the market. Fentanyl overdose is now the leading cause of death of Americans aged 18-25. Canadian death numbers are proportionate.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid so powerful that one kilogram can kill 500,000 people. The fact that the drug is so concentrated makes it both particularly dangerous, and easy to smuggle. A backpack thrown across the border can contain $1,000,000 worth of the drug. It is easy to see why so many opportunists are willing to risk their lives making and selling it. Official overdose statistics also say nothing about the bodies in the desert, or others murdered because they foolishly decided to take their chances working in the vicious drug trade.
Fentanyl is easily produced for a few cents per pill. Although it is sold on the street for many times that, it is still a cheap high. It is also incredibly addictive, and it is found in virtually all of the “street drugs” that addicts seek out, because it gives “the most bang for the buck.” The fact that those street drugs are often made by amateurs often means that they are carelessly made, and contain lethal doses. Because pills look the same, there is no way of knowing whether a certain pill will make you high, or will kill you.
So, that’s fentanyl.
Now, what is 'Gladue sentencing?'
Simply put, it is race-based sentencing available only to indigenous people.
Gladue sentencing was created by the Supreme Court in 1999, based on a 1995 Criminal Code amendment(718.2) that singled out indigenous offenders for special treatment. In a nutshell, in certain situations an indigenous offender will not go to jail where a non-indigenous offender will, if the sentencing judge was convinced that the indigenous offender had a troubled background.
A history of residential school attendance is commonly cited in a “Gladue Report” as the reason for an indigenous offenders experiencing “intergenerational trauma” that partly excused his criminal activity.
The claim is seldom checked, and it is assumed that every indigenous person who claimed an ancestor who attended a residential school has been forever traumatized by that school attendance. In Canada that “intergenerational trauma” will be presumed to carry on down through the generations forever. Canada is the only nation in the world where this odd claim is accepted. No Canadian court has questioned it, despite the fact there is no cogent evidence to support it. But I digress.
Both Parliament and the Supreme Court expressed the hope that this race-based sentence mitigation procedure would lower the shockingly high rate of indigenous offenders who are sent to jails and prisons. However there is no evidence that it has done that, and some good evidence that it has actually made things worse.
The race-based nature of the Gladue sentencing principle also makes for some strange results. It means, for example, that the indigenous Premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, would theoretically be eligible for Gladue consideration, while a non-indigenous person from the worst possible background would not. This is illogical.
It means that an indigenous woman who has been assaulted or raped by an indigenous man who is her partner, relative or other person known to her — which is the case with the overwhelming majority of indigenous women victims — will often watch the perpetrator who brutalized her escape a jail sentence, while a non-indigenous woman in the same situation will watch her brutalizer go to jail for what he did.
Exactly how this special sentencing helps indigenous women and girls is not clear.
And it also means that millionaire drug dealers, who are responsible for importing enough fentanyl precursor to kill every Canadian many times over, can count on getting reduced sentences, simply because they are indigenous.
This must seem very funny to these two indigenous criminals to whom we referred in the first paragraph, and to their partners in crime.
Imagine a justice system gullible enough to reduce the sentences of the worst criminals on the planet — some of the very people responsible for the overdose deaths of tens of thousands of young Canadians — because too many of their particular ethnic group choose to commit crimes that land too many of them in jail.
The sentencing judge quite properly considers the background and circumstances of the offender when devising the proper sentence. But sentencing a person based on his or her race or ethnic origin should have no place in Canada. Reducing the jail sentences of major criminals, based on their race, is just plain wrong.
Gladue sentencing has no place in a country where everyone is said to be equal in the eyes of the law.
Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge, and a Senior Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.