Close X
Sunday, January 12, 2025
ADVT 
National

B.C. Man Who Sold Gun For $80 To Drug Dealer Argues Sentence Would Be Unconstitutional

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 13 May, 2016 11:52 AM
    KAMLOOPS, B.C. — A Merritt, B.C., man who found a shotgun hidden under a pile of lumber and sold it for $80 within hours faces at least three years in prison.
     
    Rodney Boesel has pleaded guilty to trafficking a weapon in connection to his find on May 1, 2014.
     
    Boesel's B.C. Supreme Court hearing based on a constitutional argument will be the first in the province to challenge the mandatory three-year minimum sentence for sale of illegal firearms.
     
    Crown lawyer Neil Flanagan said Boesel was doing renovations at an apartment building where he lived when he discovered a shotgun wrapped in plastic in a weedy lumber pile beside a shed.
     
    Boesel immediately called his drug dealer, who he had only recently met, and offered to sell the gun.
     
    "It was a very poor-timing opportunity to make a dollar," Boesel told his sentencing hearing.
     
    RCMP had arrested the drug dealer the day before and an officer answered his cellphone. Boesel arranged to sell the gun for $80 and about $20 worth of crack cocaine.
     
    An undercover Mountie made the deal the same morning and police immediately arrested Boesel.
     
    Under laws brought in by the former Conservative government in 2008, weapons trafficking carries a three-year minimum sentence.
     
    That law has been found to be unconstitutional in other provinces, including Ontario, but Flanagan said it still stands in B.C.
     
    He said the Crown is duty-bound to ask for three years behind bars.
     
    But defence lawyer Genevieve Eliany is asking B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop to declare the minimum sentence contrary to the charter.
     
    Boesel is a drug addict on a methadone program and has a criminal record for several break-and-enter thefts in 2008.
     
    He has no record for violence.
     
    After the sale, Boesel told police: "It must seem stupid, but I really didn't think about it.'"
     
    "You didn't once think this drug dealer was going duck hunting in Saskatchewan, did you?" Flanagan asked during cross-examination. "This gun would be used in the drug business."
     
    Federal Crown lawyer Lesley Ruzicka is arguing the court should decline to rule that the three-year minimum breaches the charter. 

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Lockdowns Due To Police Emergency In Williams Lake, B.C., Residents Urged To Stay Inside

    Lockdowns Due To Police Emergency In Williams Lake, B.C., Residents Urged To Stay Inside
    The notice advises that, due to a police emergency, school buses are delayed and schools in Williams Lake are locked down.

    Lockdowns Due To Police Emergency In Williams Lake, B.C., Residents Urged To Stay Inside

    Kamloops Poilice Investigate At Three Locations After Shots Fired Into Home

    Kamloops Poilice Investigate At Three Locations After Shots Fired Into Home
    Mounties say no one was injured in the shooting and it was an isolated incident.

    Kamloops Poilice Investigate At Three Locations After Shots Fired Into Home

    Thinking Of Jumping The Fare Gates? Don’t. Especially When There Is A Warrant Out For Your Arrest!

    Thinking Of Jumping The Fare Gates? Don’t. Especially When There Is A Warrant Out For Your Arrest!
    New Westminster - A man who decided to jump over a fare gate, rather than pay a fare, clearly wasn’t considering the consequences.

    Thinking Of Jumping The Fare Gates? Don’t. Especially When There Is A Warrant Out For Your Arrest!

    B.C. Pedophile 'Swirl Face' Promises Change, Apologizes To Victims In Cambodia

    B.C. Pedophile 'Swirl Face' Promises Change, Apologizes To Victims In Cambodia
    Christopher Neil told a B.C. Supreme Court that he no longer believes sex with children is acceptable "anywhere in the world" at the conclusion of his sentencing hearing. He pleaded guilty in December to five child-sex crimes.

    B.C. Pedophile 'Swirl Face' Promises Change, Apologizes To Victims In Cambodia

    Zee TV Boss Subhash Chandra Gets Award From Canada-India Foundation In Toronto

    Zee TV Boss Subhash Chandra Gets Award From Canada-India Foundation In Toronto
    Zee TV and Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra on Saturday received the $50,000 Global Indian Award from the Canada-India Foundation.

    Zee TV Boss Subhash Chandra Gets Award From Canada-India Foundation In Toronto

    Surge In Storefront Pot Dispensaries Has Caught Some Municipalities By Surprise

    Surge In Storefront Pot Dispensaries Has Caught Some Municipalities By Surprise
    The Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries estimates there are at least 350 such storefronts in Canada, with dozens opening in Toronto alone in the past few months.  

    Surge In Storefront Pot Dispensaries Has Caught Some Municipalities By Surprise