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The former president of the local Outlaws motorcycle club, convicted of drug and gun charges, will be sentenced sooner than later.
This week, it was determined that Ryan (Big Red) Daigneault’s sentencing date can be set on July 31 without the preparation of a Gladue Report, a specialized pre-sentence report for offenders with Indigenous connections.
Last month, when Daigneault, 48, and Daniel (Tattoo) Bell, 37, were supposed to be sentenced, the case was adjourned after Daigneault’s defence lawyer wanted her client’s links to First Nations communities explored. Daigneault stated he had an Indigenous stepmother and once lived in an Indigenous community.
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The Crown noted at the earlier hearing Daigneault’s stepmother didn’t come into his life until he was a youth when he had a sporadic relationship with his father, and that he had not lived on a First Nations community for 25 years.
But defence lawyer Alexandra Mamo wanted the connections investigated to resolve whether a comprehensive Gladue report – they that take weeks to complete – should be prepared.
Gladue principles address the over-representation of Indigenous offenders in the justice system and instruct sentencing judges to consider systemic factors including intergenerational trauma from the residential school system.
At a brief court appearance this week, the court was told that a Gladue Report was not going to be prepared in Daigneault’s case.
Daigneault and Bell both pleaded guilty in February to two counts of trafficking in cocaine and one count of transferring or offering to transfer a handgun.
They were charged during a police biker enforcement sweep in March 2021.
An agreed statement of facts presented at their guilty plea hearing stated the two bikers were duped by a police agent they were recruiting to be an Outlaw member. They sold him thousands of dollars of high-quality cocaine and equipped him with a gun.
Bell’s sentencing date will be set at the time as Daigneault’s hearing.
jsims@postmedia.com
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