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Hakim sentence not enough: Jolicoeur
Accident victim's father reacts; 18 months doesn't send strong deterrent message
DAVID JOHNSTON
The Gazette
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Claude Jolicoeur speaks to media after sentencing Tuesday. (PHIL CARPENTER/The Gazette)
Valleyfield – The father of Patricia Jolicoeur said yesterday he’s happy that
Edward Hakim has been sentenced to a prison term. But he said Hakim’s
18-month sentence fails to send a sufficiently strong deterrent message to dangerous drivers in general.
“For me, it’s not enough,” said Claude Jolicoeur at the Valleyfield courthouse, minutes after Hakim was sentenced yesterday morning in connection with dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
Hakim, 21, of Dorval, a full-time sales representative for a marketing company and part-time student at John Abbott College, pleaded guilty last fall in connection with the November 2006 incident on Yearling St. in St. Lazare.
After pulling into an on-coming lane of traffic and making as if he was trying to pass the car in front of him – at a speed well in excess of the speed limit, – Hakim struck Patricia as she was walking the family dog by the side of the road.
She suffered massive brain injuries and has been left physically and mentally incapacitated. Only 27 at the time of the accident, she is currently living in a Pointe Claire chronic-care home.
“Patricia was, in essence, put in a prison for life (as a result of the accident),” said her father. “I wasn’t asking for life (in prison for Hakim). I was asking for equity. And I think we are far from equity here.”
Still, the fact he was sentenced to prison, and not to a term to be served in the community, was an outcome he welcomed.
“We are satisfied that imprisonment has been granted. But again, in our system, I don’t know how long a sentence he’s going to end up serving.”
Sentences of less than two years are served in provincial prisons, where parole is granted after a third of the sentence – or a sixth, exceptionally, if prison overcrowding is a problem.
Lise Jolicoeur, Patricia’s mother, and Mathieu, her brother, a firefighter in Gatineau, were not at the sentencing yesterday, although they were there for the sentencing hearing April 7.
At that hearing, Lise said she had no strong opinion on what the appropriate length of Hakim’s sentence should be. “My thoughts are entirely with Patricia,” she said.
Sylvie Jolicoeur-Paine, Claude’s sister and Patricia’s aunt, said of the 18-month term: “It’s not as positive as we would have hoped. But it is fairly positive because it is an indication that there was some real criminal wrongdoing here.”
The crown had been seeking a 30-month term in a federal penitentiary. Martin Pilotte, Hakim’s lawyer, had argued for a term of 15 to 18 months to be served in the community.