Indigenous judge blames Canada's colonialism for Indigenous man killing 12-year-old girl in DUI wreck, sentences him to house arrest

A judge in Ontario has ruled that “colonialism” is to blame for a drunk-driving crash that resulted in a First Nations man killing a 12-year-old girl, and that a prison sentence would take away the man’s ability to “regain his culture.”

Darris Wilson was given two years of house arrest in a sentencing decision handed down earlier in September. The crash took place on February 11, 2022 on Oakland Road in Brant County just before 4:30 pm, per the Brantford Expositor.

Wilson had been speeding and drifting out of his lane leading up to the crash. Authorities said that he was driving at around 90 km/h in a 50 km/h zone when his Dodge Ram pickup truck crashed head-on into the Mitsubishi subcompact driven by 12-year-old Sierra Beverly’s mother, Naomi, who had been taking her to a sleepover in Tillsonburg. No evidence was found that Wilson used to the brakes.

The daughter was killed, and the mother sustained traumatic injuries, requiring 24-hour supervision and attendant care in the wake of the crash.

Police had found unopened and opened cans of beer around the driver’s seat of Wilson’s truck, however, officers at the scene said that they had not seen any indication that he was impaired, and had not smelled alcohol on his breath.

The Crown had sought a prison sentence of four years. However, Ontario Justice Gethin Edward sentenced him to two years of house arrest with an ankle monitor. He is not allowed to drive, drink alcohol, or take non-prescription drugs during that time.

In his ruling, Edwards, a Six Nations member and Mohawk, said he took into consideration how Wilson had a “major disconnection” with his culture due to the colonization of the Six Nations, which led him into “over-consumption of alcohol and unhealthy relationships.”

“This crystallized into the tragic events of Feb. 11, 2022,” said Edward. He quoted another decision in his ruling, writing, “The over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons is a present-day product of this country’s colonial past.”

“As Indigenous incarceration rates have climbed … this over-incarceration is an ongoing source of intergenerational harm to families and communities. It is a striking sign of the discrimination that Indigenous peoples experience in all parts of the criminal justice system.”

He said his sentencing ruling could not “erase this country’s colonial past” or remove the conditions that caused the offender to commit a crime, but that a judge is “uniquely positioned” to address racial inequalities.”

“Mr. Wilson’s efforts to regain his culture, that which was taken from him and his family in a systematic fashion by the Government of Canada, will once again be taken by the state if the court imposes a four-year penitentiary sentence. I’m left with this simple refrain: ‘If not now, when. If not this case, what case? To which I simply reply: Now, and this case.'”