Law360 Canada ( October 9, 2026, 2:21 PM EDT) -- Appeal by Crown from judgment reducing respondent’s sentence for aggravated assault from five years’ imprisonment to three years’ imprisonment, less remand credit. The respondent, a Mi’kmaw man whose schizoaffective disorder was untreated and who had a substance use disorder, repeatedly punched and kicked his Mi’kmaw intimate partner and smashed her head against a sidewalk, causing significant injuries. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and breaches of release orders. The victim was particularly vulnerable to intimate partner violence. The respondent’s Indigenous background report described intergenerational trauma, childhood exposure to violence and substance abuse, and the severance of his family’s cultural connections through residential school. A sentencing circle considered further incarceration futile and recommended culturally informed community treatment addressing his mental health and substance abuse. The sentencing judge imposed five years’ imprisonment for aggravated assault, having found that incarceration was necessary to protect society. The Court of Appeal held that the sentencing judge had underemphasized the relationship between the respondent’s mental illness, substance abuse and Indigenous background factors, and substituted three years’ imprisonment, less 18 months’ remand credit, followed by two years’ probation. On appeal from that decision, the Crown argued that the Court of Appeal failed to defer to the sentencing judge and that its sentence failed to give effect to the Criminal Code requirements concerning violence against Indigenous women and intimate partners. The respondent argued that the sentencing judge failed to individualize the sentence and meaningfully engage with the sentencing circle’s recommendations....