Judge Hands Lighter Sentence to BC Indigenous Man for Assaults on Toddler, Citing ‘Colonialization’

An indigenous man in B.C. received a lighter sentence than the Crown had sought for two assaults on his girlfriend’s two-year-old child last year, with the judge citing the effects of “colonialization” as one of the mitigating factors.

In her April 7 sentencing decision, B.C. Provincial Court Judge Tamera Golinsky sentenced the 33-year-old man to two concurrent sentences of six months in jail after he acknowledged choking and kicking his girlfriend’s then-28-month-old child in two assaults captured on a ‘nanny cam’ in the toddler’s bedroom.