ST. THOMAS, Ont. — Just when he was supposed to be sentenced for a violent jewelry store heist, Wallace Piercey surprised everyone with a branch on his family tree. Piercey’s mother, Ontario Court Justice Michael O’Dea was told, is Cherokee — a fact he hadn’t told his defence lawyer, the Crown or the probation officer who wrote his pre-sentence report. That little detail was enough to require a so-called Gladue report, a specialized pre-sentence report for indigenous people. There’s no Gladue writer in St. Thomas.

Source: National Post September 29, 2016 14:26 UTC