Firearms Trafficker Gets House Arrest After Judge Declares Mandatory Minimum Unconstitutional

The Superior Court of Justice in Windsor, Ont., is pictured on Nov. 16, 2023. The Canadian Press/Dax Melmer

An Ontario judge has sentenced a man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic a firearm to two years less a day under house arrest, citing previous rulings that found the three-year mandatory minimum unconstitutional.

Emerson Wright, 29, pleaded guilty to conspiring with his childhood friend, Dylan Crawford, to traffic a firearm, according to an Aug. 11 decision by Ontario Superior Court Justice Kelly Tranquilli. Wright had been charged with conspiring to traffic firearms and possessing a firearm for the purpose of transferring it while knowingly not being authorized to do so.

“Trafficking in a firearm carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of three years for a first offence,” Tranquilli wrote in her decision. “However, this mandatory minimum sentence has been declared unconstitutional.”

Several Ontario Superior Court judges have previously ruled that the three-year mandatory minimum for a first firearms-trafficking offence is unconstitutional, saying it can violate the Charter’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Tranquilli cited Wright’s limited role in the scheme, lack of criminal record, guilty plea, and significant progress in overcoming his drug addiction as factors supporting a community-based sentence.

In addition to the conditional sentence, Wright was sentenced to two years of probation.

Wright had spent one month in jail after being arrested before being released on bail. He was one of nine individuals charged in what Tranquilli said was a “covert scheme to traffic handguns from the United States of America into Canada.”

The case stemmed from Crawford’s arrest on Feb. 2, 2023, at a convenience store in London, Ont.

Police were following up on an outstanding warrant when Crawford allegedly discarded a loaded handgun into a store display shortly before his arrest. A subsequent search of Crawford’s vehicle found eight other handguns in the trunk, according to the court decision.

Investigators said cellphone evidence uncovered a nine-person conspiracy to smuggle firearms purchased in the United States into Canada for profit.

The decision said text messages between Crawford and Wright indicated that Wright had stored firearms for Crawford and received cash and drugs in exchange.

Sentence

The Crown was seeking a three-year prison sentence for Wright, saying he had knowingly assisted in trafficking firearms in a criminal endeavour that put the community in danger.

“The Crown contends the circumstances of Mr. Wright’s offence are a grave reality for this community, where there were 31 shooting incidents in London last year,” the judge wrote.

The judge observed that Wright had not been involved in procuring the weapons, smuggling them, or planning the operation to traffic them across the border, and was only in contact with Crawford to provide a “stash house” for the weapons and be rewarded with drugs.

Under the conditions of his house arrest Wright must stay at home except for doctor’s appointments, work, education, counselling, or religious attendance, and a five-hour time block on Saturdays to run errands and other unspecified personal necessities.

He is also required to do 200 hours of community service within the next 18 months and is banned from possessing weapons for 10 years.