Canada's Opioid Crisis and Compassionate Forgiveness for Fentanyl Trafficker

"Given [Kassar's] medical vulnerability, and given his dependence on uninterrupted treatment to avoid morbidity and potential mortality, I am satisfied that [he] has provided clear, convincing, and non-speculative evidence of the harm that he would experience if his removal is not deferred."

"I do not take this fact lightly. The opioid crisis in this country is real, and it has harmed many people."

"In most circumstances, the balance of convenience would favour the strong public interest in removing non-citizens who have played a role in that crisis."

"He [Kassar] was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment for the fentanyl conviction, and nine months for the hydromorphone conviction, to be served consecutively. He was released on parole in June 2021." 

Federal Court Justice Angus Grant, February 11, removal stayed 

A federal judge has paused the deportation of convicted fentanyl trafficker Mohamad Kassar after medical evidence suggested he may have lung cancer.Winnipeg Sun File Photo

Ordered deported from Canada in December 2019 following his conviction for possession of fentanyl and hyrdomorphone as a trafficker in illegal street drugs, Lebanese immigrant Mohamad Kassar who had arrived in Canada about 35 years ago on a permanent resident visa, was to have been removed to Lebanon on February 13, as an undesirable in Canada due to his serious criminal record.

 

However, on the basis of a preliminary medial diagnosis Federal Court Justice Angus Grant studied, that the man may have a tumour on his lung, his removal from Canada was stayed on compassionate grounds. As it happens, over recent years Canada has experienced huge social problems of drug overdoses leading to death linked to the availability of the powerful drug fentanyl. Originally manufactured as an opioid in China and brought into Canada through internet orders, more latterly the precursor chemicals for the production of fentanyl have entered Canada supplying illicit labs set up to produce fentanyl domestically.

 

As an enabler through Kassar's illegal drug trafficking, there can be little doubt that the drugs made available by his enterprising illegal activities added in no small measure to the menace on the streets of Canada and the inevitable overdose deaths of many drug users. His own pecuniary interests obviously took precedent over any residual feelings of ordinary human compassion that may have pranged  his conscience, but not to the extent that he took responsibility for the damage he wrought on people's lives.

 

His own medical-health vulnerabilities on the other hand, have played an outsized role in the man's efforts to remain in Canada rather than be returned to the violence-wracked Middle East country of his birth. The Canadian taxpayer will pay for this man's cost-lofty medical treatments as a perpetrator of criminal activity impacting the lives of Canadians consigning them to an early death. Thousands of lives have been lost in Canada with the proliferation of fentanyl as the dominant street drug afflicting people addicted to drug use.

 

Kassar submitted an application to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, along with an application for a temporary resident permit and subsequently requested a deferral of his  removal while he waits for a response to his applications. Kassar's pre-removal risk assessment representing his final bid to remain in Canada was rejected by an inland enforcement officer. "I am convinced that a serious issue arises as to whether the officer adequately considered whether Mr. Kassar's medical conditions, when considered in light of the health care system in Lebanon, posed an immediate impediment to removal", commented Justice Grant.  

"Kassar is presently stable, but [that] this stability is tied to his current treatment, without which, his condition may deteriorate significantly."

"If unable to access medication, the doctor stated that Mr. Kassar was at risk not only for morbidity, but also of mortality."

Justice Grant  

Kassar had been convicted in 2018 of possession of fentanyl and hydromorphone for the purposes of trafficking. Given his convictions, the order was launched to have him deported in December of 2019. Canada Border Services Agency did not immediately respond to the order to deport the man, and in April of 2025, Kassar applied for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds. Then in January he applied for a temporary resident permit. No official decisions have yet been made with respect to the status of the applications.

 

Kassar turned to the Federal Court when an inland enforcement officer turned down his request to put his deportation off until the decisions on the applications were received. The officer, contended, the Judge, concluded that Kassar's "claim that he would be unable to obtain treatment in Lebanon was speculative", claiming "that the health care system is imperfect but also noting that health care remains available". Leading the Judge to the opinion that a serious health care crisis exists in Lebanon, and as a result, the Toronto court ordered a stay in the drug trafficker's deportation.

 

A Lebanese immigrant ordered deported in December 2019 after he was convicted for possession of fentanyl and hydromorphone for the purposes of trafficking has seen his deportation delayed by a Federal Court judge due to a possible lung cancer diagnosis. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

 

"[There are concerns over the Canada Border Services Agency officer's] consideration of the evidence on the health care system in Lebanon."

"The overwhelming thrust of this evidence is that the Lebanese health are system is in a state of acute crisis, that it struggles to provide routine treatment for chronic diseases, and that it is essentially on the verge of collapse."

"Instead of grappling with this evidence, the officer quoted isolated passages from the reports of two emergency relief organizations indicating that they do everything in their power to offer care to those in need [in Lebanon]."

Justice Angus Grant 

Canadian Justice -- Canted to Serve the Interests of Indigenous Exceptionalism

"The appellant [who was 20 at the time] thought he could hear Mr. Stone yelling at his mother. Thinking that she was in danger, he rushed to the scene of the accident." 

"On arrival, he spoke to his mother and then confronted Mr. Stone who was hurrying toward his mother, having just come from a store where he had purchased cigarettes for her."

"Although Ms. Davis tried to stop her son, he walked briskly toward Mr. Stone and punched him in t he middle of his forehead, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious." 

Partial text of British Columbia Court of Appeal decision

 

"The specific question to be addressed in this case is whether Mr. Davis, as an Indigenous offender, should be sentenced differently from the way a non-Indigenous offender would be sentenced for an aggravated assault of this nature. In my view, the answer to that question must be 'yes'."

"Significant weight should be placed on the lessened moral culpability of the offender given his circumstances as an Indigenous person."

"Mr. Davis has been incarcerated since November 2024. By operation of law, the time served in custody will be counted as part of the 24-month conditional sentence order. The remainder of the first 18 months of the conditional sentence is to be served under house arrest." 

"[While the sentencing judge] was alive to the importance of Gladue factors, he found these factors had a 'lesser impact', in part of Mr. Davis's 'success in life' as demonstrated by the fact that he had graduated from high school, was employed, had no negative peer associations, no addiction issues, and no criminal history."

"Reports filed at sentencing confirmed that his father abused his mother and sexually abused his cousin."

"Mr. Davis's circumstances provide the necessary context for understanding his actions on the day of the offence."

"[While it isn't] necessary to establish a direct causal link between systemic and background factors and the offence at issue, Mr. Davis's circumstances provide the necessary context for understanding his actions on the day of the offence."

Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon, B.C. Court of Appeal majority decision 

The B.C. Appeal Court has sentenced an Indigenous offender to house arrest instead of jail for an unprovoked attack that left his victim permanently injured, citing the goal of reducing the disproportionate number of Indigenous offenders in Canadian jails. Photo by Corgarashu /Fotolia

 

The Gladue principle referred to is the generously forgiving infantalization of Indigenous Canadians who are held, due to environmental circumstances beyond their control, to be less capable than any other Canadian citizens in controlling their emotional, criminal impulses. Indigenous Canadians have the misfortune of being over-represented as a criminal class incarcerated for committing crimes in Canada. Canada's criminal justice system maintains that this is the result of colonization, of European settlers foisting their standards of civil behaviour on native Canadians.

 

That the colonial mentality was dismissive of the humanity of the Indigenous peoples who were found to be inhabiting North America at the time of European arrivals searching for prospective new territory for settlement. Considering themselves superior to the 'savages' they found throughout North America, a paternalistic attitude prevailed which made an effort at times to respect Native culture and values while at the same time maligning them. The establishment of Residential Schools for Indigenous children to receive the kind of formal education that would prepare theme for life in urban centres was meant to help them integrate and to be exposed to basic life skills alongside literacy and numeracy.

 

Those educational establishments were condemned in later years as a prime symbol of European arrogance, exposing Indigenous children to sub-par conditions injurious to their sense of pride, culture and heritage. Quite bypassing the fact that most children did receive a useful education, enabling them to go on to pursue further avenues of higher education in situations not entirely unlike the boarding schools that the elite in the United Kingdom sent their children to, where some children there too suffered ill treatment yet because it was the prevailing system of the monied class, managed to prevail toward normal adulthood.

 

In Canada, the Gladue principle prevails in the sentencing of Aboriginal Canadians, whereby lesser sentences are given to criminal offenders, taking their cue from the concept of a state where vulnerable children were raised in underdeveloped circumstances which hampered their sense of right and wrong. In fact, in Aboriginal communities there tends to be gender-based violence in excess of what prevails elsewhere. Minor criminal activities are common and many within the Native communities struggle to find their place within society. Alcohol addiction, illegal drug activity, and neglect of children's needs are rife.

 

That Indigenous Canadians have faced blatant discrimination is undeniable. That they are generally considered to be less capable at endeavours to shape a decent life for themselves outside of gangs and prostitution is a problem within the community. Yet among them have arisen those who pursued an education that would prepare them for pursuit of the professions of politics, law, education, medicine, mercantilism and academia, just as those from other walks of life have achieved.

 

In the face of which the failure to hold violence committed by Canadian citizens of Indigenous background remains an anomaly whereby they are held to inferior standards than that of other Canadians. In the case of Isaac Harrison Davis, found guilty of aggravated assault against another young man whom he believed to be abusing his mother, applying the Gladue principle which should long since have been retired from Canadian law, fails to do justice to his victim. Davis's mother happened to have been in a car accident while on the phone with her son; the other drive was Andrew Stone.

 

When Davis rushed to the scene of the accident, he confronted Mr. Stone and without warning struck him a blow severe enough that Mr. Stone fell unconscious, vomiting and bleeding, never having been given an opportunity to speak or to defend himself. His skull was fractured in the blow. Multiple surgeries followed. He was three weeks in a coma, paralyzed for two weeks. The result of which he suffered from speech aphasia, memory loss and cognitive deficiencies. He now must take speech therapy, and requires the use of a hearing aid. 

A member of the K'omoks First Nation, Mr. Davis had originally been sentenced to 21 months in prison, reflecting the fact that he had caused another man a severe brain injury. The Court of Appeal for British Columbia has now ruled that having failed to give due consideration to the Gladue principles; the sentencing judge, Justice Paul Riley, having taken into consideration the normalcy of his having completed high school, secure employment and no record of criminal activity; the original sentence was set aside.

 

Despite that Justice Paul Riley had concluded that the 21-month jail term approached the low end of the sentencing range, taking into account the effect of Gladue principles on the degree of moral culpability by the offender; for he had considered when he originally sentenced Mr. Davis, all the other mitigating circumstances. The reversal of this judge's carefully considered opinion leading to the sentence, represents a miscarriage of Canadian justice.

 

B.C.'s top court has set aside a 21-month jail sentence handed down last fall to Isaac Harrison Davis, a member of the K'ómoks First Nation, for punching another man, fracturing his skull and causing a severe brain injury. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS