TORONTO — An Ontario judge has sentenced a man who helped traffic handguns into Canada from the United States to house arrest after the mandatory minimum sentence for the offence was declared unconstitutional.In an August 11 decision, Justice Kelly Tranquilli of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in London imposed a conditional sentence of two years less a day on Emerson Wright, 29, followed by two years of probation and 200 hours of community service. During the conditional sentence Wright must remain in his home at all times except for work, training, meetings with his supervisor, medical appointments, counselling and religious observance.Wright pleaded guilty on the first day of trial to conspiracy to traffic in a firearm. He was one of nine people charged in a scheme uncovered in February 2023 after police arrested his childhood friend Dylan Crawford inside a London convenience store. Crawford discarded a loaded handgun into a display of bagged pistachios just before his arrest. A search of Crawford’s car turned up eight more handguns. The subsequent investigation, known as Project Pistachio and conducted as part of the wider London Police Project SAFE operation, revealed a conspiracy that police say smuggled as many as 150 restricted or prohibited firearms into Canada for profit..Text messages showed Wright stored firearms — referred to as “sticks” — for Crawford in exchange for cash and drugs, and that he knew the weapons were being sold. The Crown sought a three-year penitentiary sentence, arguing Wright knowingly assisted a violent criminal enterprise that endangers the community.Tranquilli noted that trafficking in a firearm carries a maximum of 10 years and previously carried a three-year mandatory minimum for a first offence. That mandatory minimum has been struck down as unconstitutional. She described handgun trafficking as “particularly malignant” because such weapons serve no lawful purpose, but found Wright’s involvement was peripheral compared with those who planned, imported and executed the operation.Other members of the same ring received significantly harsher sentences. The mastermind, Elias Akhi, was sentenced to 14 years. On August 17, Tyrese Cumberbatch, 26, who helped acquire the guns in Ohio and was described as instrumental in moving them, received 7½ years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in a criminal organization and importing prohibited firearms. One co-accused who laundered proceeds also received a conditional sentence..Wright spent three productive years on bail without reoffending. He completed addiction counselling, found employment, finished a construction training program, cut ties with previous associates and has the support of family. The judge cited his first-offender status, relative youth, mental-health history and demonstrated rehabilitation as reasons incarceration was not the only option.The decision continues a pattern of conditional sentences for some firearm offences in Ontario after mandatory minimums were invalidated, raising questions about deterrence for those who move lethal weapons into Canadian communities.
