Police officers have for too long benefited from lenient punishments when they are convicted of crimes and it’s eroding public trust in Canada that justice will be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That’s the view of Manitoba Crown prosecutors, as they wait to hear whether the country’s highest court will hear their bid to overturn what they believe is the latest in insufficient sentences handed to an ex-Thompson RCMP officer convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Sentences imposed in the past no longer fit with society’s views of how police officers ought to be held accountable and the irreparable damage that police offending conduct has on the faith that the public has in the administration of justice,”\u00a0 prosecutors Chris Vanderhooft and Ashleigh Smith argue in documents filed with the Supreme Court of Canada.<\/p>\n “The public is taking to the streets to demand justice and accountability. It is speaking with a voice that has never been louder than in this current social climate,” they said, ostensibly referencing recent widespread protests against police misconduct against Black, Indigenous and\u00a0communities of colour\u00a0in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n The Crown is hoping to see Abram Letkeman re-sentenced for a second time.\u00a0<\/p>\n After a 2019 trial, Letkeman was handed a sentence of three years probation, a $10,000 fine, community service and a driving prohibition for his on-duty conduct early on Nov. 21, 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was found guilty of recklessly injuring a woman when he twice used his police cruiser to strike a Jeep he was pursuing, including T-boning it on the passenger side. Letkeman testified he believed its driver was impaired and was aware there were other occupants in the Jeep at the time. The woman suffered a fractured pelvis and a broken neck.\u00a0<\/p>\n Letkeman ultimately shot and killed the driver, Steven Campbell, but was acquitted of charges related to the shooting after the trial judge ruled it was justified.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n In a split decision in July, a three-judge panel of Manitoba’s Court of Appeal ruled Letkeman’s sentence unfit and overturned the trial judge’s initial sentence.<\/p>\n In re-sentencing Letkeman, two of three judges said a fit punishment was 10 months in jail, but imposed three months. They upheld his $10,000 fine but\u00a0stayed the execution of jail time.\u00a0<\/p>\n That slightly stiffer punishment still didn’t fit Letkeman’s crime, prosecutors argue.\u00a0<\/p>\n The court has not yet said if it will hear the case but the Crown attorneys said the issues presented in the appeal are a national problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The sentences imposed in this case exposed serious flaws in our justice system,” they told the SCC.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4008683.1560970386!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_780\/steven-campbell-rcmp-shooting.jpg\"\/)
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