Métis woman gets discounted sentence for selling deadly drugs

An Alberta judge has discounted the sentence for a Métis woman caught selling drugs she believed had already killed two people, linking her crimes to “the intergenerational legacy” of residential schools.

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Justice Derek Jugnauth sentenced Kendall Delaney to six years in prison after she pleaded guilty in the Court of King’s Bench to trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl.

“Absent the mitigating factors and the circumstances described in the Indigenous Background Report, I would regard this as an exemplary case for a sentence very significantly above the 5-7 year range,” Jugnauth wrote in a recent decision out of Edmonton.

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Delaney, now 28, was arrested in the spring of 2024 by an undercover police operation set up by the Camrose Police Service and Vegreville RCMP.

The court heard that she was selling fentanyl laced with a benzodiazepine, which increases the risk of a fatal overdose.

Delaney told an undercover police officer on April 17, 2024, that “two men had recently died in her residence from fentanyl overdoses caused by the red fentanyl (she was selling), indicating that one of the deceased had been a good friend of hers.”

These circumstances place Delaney’s “moral culpability well above that of the ordinary commercial fentanyl trafficker,” said the judge in his Oct. 15 decision.

The Crown recommended she get three years in prison, calling the position “lenient” and “the minimum capable of adequately denouncing the conduct and deterring (Ms. Delaney) and others.”

Delaney tried arguing for house arrest and probation. But after the judge said he was considering giving her more time than even the Crown was seeking, she abandoned the ask for a conditional sentence and sought a prison term in the range of four to five years.

Delaney sold about two ounces of methamphetamine to an undercover officer for $380 at her home on March 10, 2024. Her six-year-old son witnessed the transaction, the judge said.

Three days later, she sold the same undercover cop an ounce of methamphetamine and 3.5 grams of cocaine for $430.

“A short time later, the undercover officer again contacted Ms. Delaney and arranged to purchase 3.5 grams of fentanyl for $220. During the discussions leading up to the sale, Ms. Delaney asked whether the officer wanted ‘blue, red or brown’ fentanyl, or a combination of the three. Ms. Delaney advised the officer that the red fentanyl was ‘literally killing ppl it’s so strong’ and suggested that anyone receiving it should be warned about its potency. The officer replied that a mixture was acceptable.”

The undercover officer went to Delaney’s home and her boyfriend handed over drugs outside.

“The fentanyl was packaged in three separate bags containing red, blue and brown fentanyl,” said the decision.

“Analysis later determined that the red fentanyl contained bromazolam, a benzodiazepine.”

The undercover officer contacted Delaney again on April 16, 2024.

“During the conversation, Ms. Delaney stated that she was not doing well because two people had overdosed during the previous week. When the officer asked to purchase additional red fentanyl and one ounce of methamphetamine, Ms. Delaney advised that the red fentanyl had caused the overdoses and noted her supply was diminished but that she would see what she could do.”

The next day, the undercover cop arranged to buy three ounces of methamphetamine from Delaney.

They travelled together to Edmonton from Vegreville, with another undercover officer in the same car, to obtain more drugs.

Once they got there, one of the undercover officers gave Delaney money to buy three ounces of methamphetamine.

She handed over the drugs and one of the undercover cops noticed Delaney had more drugs in her purse.

“During the time spent in Edmonton, Ms. Delaney advised the undercover officers on two occasions that other customers had placed orders for methamphetamine that she was obtaining on that trip.”

When Mounties stopped their car at 1:10 a.m. on April 18, 2024, Delaney “removed from her purse a bag of methamphetamine weighing approximately one ounce and a bag containing approximately 1.3 grams of cocaine and concealed both items in her vagina, which she had previously told the undercover officers she would do if stopped by police.”

Police arrested all of them and found more cocaine and methamphetamine in Delaney’s purse.

“After initially denying that she was concealing controlled substances in her body, and refusing medical treatment to extract those substances, Ms. Delaney eventually removed the concealed drugs on her own, which were then seized by police.”

Those experiences do not excuse her conduct, but they provide important context for understanding how she came before the court

The judge said he must “consider the unique systemic and background factors” that contributed to Delaney’s circumstances and determine whether they bear upon her level of moral blameworthiness.

She experienced “a significant degree of intergenerational trauma notwithstanding the limited role that her Indigenous father played in her life,” Jugnauth said.

“The fact that her father was largely absent throughout her childhood left her disconnected from her Indigenous heritage and culture.”

While that “abandonment cannot be said to have directly caused the present offences, it is nevertheless part of the intergenerational legacy experienced by Ms. Delaney. The residential school experience of her paternal grandmother was followed by family fragmentation and the loss of meaningful cultural continuity. In Ms. Delaney’s case, that legacy manifested itself in the absence of her father, a lack of connection to her Métis identity, and a childhood marked by instability and dislocation.”

The judge noted Delaney’s mother “first exposed her to crack cocaine” at the age of 19. “What followed was years-long addiction to crack cocaine and methamphetamine.”

Jugnauth gave “significant weight” to Delaney’s “acceptance of responsibility and expression of remorse; her difficult personal history; and the factors identified in the Indigenous Background Report,” said the decision.

“Her life has been marked by significant childhood adversity and the effects of intergenerational trauma. Those experiences do not excuse her conduct, but they provide important context for understanding how she came before the court.”

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