Indigenous man receives reduced sentence for toddler assault due to 'negative consequence of colonization'

A 33-year-old BC indigenous man was given a reduced sentence for assaulting a toddler on two separate occasions due to what one BC judge excuses as the "negative consequence of colonization."In the recent sentencing decision, the man, referred to as KJM, due to a publication ban to protect the identity of the two-year-old boy he assaulted, was sentenced to six months in prison, as reported by the National Post.The Crown had recommended one year behind bars, while KJM's defence offered a two-year sentence to be served in the community.Judge Tamera Golinsky stated the reason for the reduced sentence was because KJM “was not raised with a traditional upbringing.” .Neither he nor his “immediate family were impacted by state actions such as residential schools, even the dissociation with one’s past and cultural heritage is a negative consequence of colonization,” stated Golinsky.KJM had pleaded guilty to both cases of assault.What also played a factor in the sentence reduction, his traumatic brain injury, which resulted in a "long-term impact on his mental condition, compromising his decision-making and ability to cope with high stress situations. "Court documents stated this injury did not result in his violent behaviour but was a factor in a number of other problems, such as employment, and "spurred periods of instability, homelessness and substance misuse.".The two assaults were captured on a nanny cam in June 2025 when KJM was living with the mother of the toddler and her daughter for approximately a year."He helped to care for the children when the mother was unavailable or even, as it appears from time to time, unwilling,” stated Golinsky.KJM told the writers of a pre-sentence report his relationship with the mother was "awful" attributing this to her alleged infidelity, claiming she was using him for money and childcare.He also claimed the toddler was "difficult to parent," beating his sister and "smear[ing] s*** on the wall," without being reprimanded by the mother..On the evening of June 13, KJM claimed he had put the child in a time-out while the mother was away.The child would often be locked in a bedroom unsupervised as a punishment for behaving badly.The pre-sentence writers claimed KJM did not express concern for the child being locked up for extended periods of time without supervision.Shown in the video sentencing, the child, wearing only a diaper, is seated on the floor near his bedroom when the door opens, the door hitting the child “rolling him back and away from the door.”“KJM stepped into the room and used his foot to kick and move the child away from the door, rolling him into the centre of the room," stated Golinsky..He then strangled the child.“He then bent down and pushed his hand on the front of the child’s neck, pressing him into the carpet. He squeezed the child’s neck for a moment while the child was screaming.""KJM yelled, ‘Get away from the f***ing door,’ and then released his grip and left the room, closing the door behind him.""The child can be heard crying while crawling back to sit at the closed door.”Two days later, KJM assaulted the child again, which was captured on camera..The boy, again dressed in only a diaper, is seated in his bed and flinches when KJM goes to stand next to the bed.“He immediately squared his stance and then kicked the child once in the face or forehead with his bare foot, causing the child to fall onto his back,” Golinksy stated. “He yelled something at the child, then stormed out of the room and closed the door behind him.""The child continued to lie there on his back and can be heard crying until the video ends a few seconds later.”.At one point after the fact, the mother noticed the scrape on her son and reviewed the nanny cam footage, where she discovered KJM had assaulted him, and alerted authorities.KJM insisted that moments before the assault, the child was “screaming or freaking out,” even though he acknowledged his wrongdoing.However, the video footage tells a different story, as the audio shows the child “was doing neither in the seconds leading up to either of the assaults.”The judge also pointed out there was no evidence of KJM attempting to console or check in on the child afterwards..Golinsky claimed since KJM's offences were "of such gravity, and his moral culpability for these offences so great, that a conditional sentence would not be proportionate and would be inconsistent with the fundamental purpose of principles of sentencing."In getting the reduced sentence, however, Golinsky counted not only his indigenous ancestry, but also his lack of prior criminal record, his remorse, and his brain injury.

Indigenous man receives reduced sentence for toddler assault due to 'negative consequence of colonization'

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