Court upholds Saskatchewan man’s dangerous offender designation

REGINA – A Saskatchewan man has lost his appeal of a court ruling that declared him to be so dangerous that he could be kept in jail indefinitely.

A judge declared in 2010 that Andy Peekeekoot is a dangerous offender.

The Shell Lake man was convicted in 2007 of assault while threatening to use a weapon during a bar fight and has more than 20 convictions, including for assaults on corrections workers.

Advocates for Peekeekoot have said that Saskatchewan has cast too wide a net when it comes to applying the dangerous offender designation.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal says it sees no reason to set aside the ruling about the need to control Peekeekoot’s risk in the community.

The panel of justices notes that he is making progress in prison, but how that affects his sentence is up to the Parole Board of Canada to determine.

“If Mr. Peekeekoot makes appropriate progress, he will ultimately be released,” the justices wrote in a ruling released Tuesday.

“The courts cannot be asked to make their decisions in relation to dangerous offender designations on the basis of an assumption that, in effect, the Parole Board will act improperly and will hold offenders in custody beyond the point at which the law says they should be released.”

The justices wrote that if, for some reason, the parole board should ultimately fail to act in accordance with its mandate, Peekeekoot could take action against the board.