“Two Tiered Justice”

An Ontario judge whittled 13 months off a 14-year sentence for a man who shot two people due to the Muslim shooter’s youth, racial discrimination he experienced growing up in Toronto, and harsh pretrial jail conditions.

A jury in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice convicted Yousaf Bilal Sheikh, 24, on two counts of attempted murder for shooting Mallory Walia and Ameen Jazei inside a white Porsche while he was in the front passenger seat on the evening of Nov. 29, 2022.

An Ontario judge has launched a remarkable attack on the Canadian judiciary, arguing that the justice system is “at an inflexion point” and must decide whether to prioritize the needs of vulnerable Canadians or criminals who have abused them.

Justice Antonio Skarica’s broadside on his fellow judges came as he sentenced a Nigerian university student who extorted a Canadian woman and left her in “constant fear” by sharing her intimate image. He sentenced Boss Omeire to 28 months in prison in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.

Lady Justice has been depicted as blindfolded for centuries—an implicit promise not to judge a person by immutable factors such as skin colour. In Canada, that may be changing, as courts increasingly consider a defendant’s race when determining punishment.

Rulings of recent years highlight the trend: A B.C. judge earlier this year ruled that a black man who stabbed his girlfriend to death will become eligible for parole in 12 years in part because of “systemic anti-Black racism.” A man of Filipino heritage convicted of a hit-and-run in Ontario received a conditional sentence in 2024 in part because of reports of racism, including classmates making “slanted-eye” gestures at him as a child. And a hashish trafficker in Quebec had his sentence cut by a third last year, at least partly because he descended from slaves.