Sentencing hearing begins for Ontario man convicted of impaired operation of canoe causing child’s death

Before the sentencing hearing for 40-year-old David Sillars began, Justice Peter West reminded the family of eight-year-old Thomas Rancourt that no matter what the sentence West imposes, no one is going to be completely satisfied.

“Things will never be the way things were on April 6, 2017 because April 7, 2017 happened. I never knew Thomas Rancourt. I think everyone in this courtroom agrees he (Thomas) was a special little boy,” West told courtroom observers.

“I think you honour his memory by moving forward with your loss.”

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Sillars was found guilty in June of impaired operation of a vessel, criminal negligence causing death, over 80 causing death, and dangerous driving causing death. It is the first time in Canadian history that anyone has ever been convicted of impaired operation of a canoe.

On April 7, 2017, a particularly cold spring day when school buses were cancelled because of freezing rain and there were warnings to stay away from the water. Sillars took his girlfriend’s son Thomas on a canoe ride down the Muskoka River. The canoe capsized and Thomas, who was wearing a life jacket too small for him, was swept over a steep, 50-foot waterfall down the river from where the canoe capsized. Sillars managed to kick off his jacket and shoes and swim to shore where he tried to find help.

Sillars was impaired by alcohol and THC. Crown attorney Frank Giordano asked the judge to sentence the 40-year-old Arden, Ont., man to six-to-eight years in a penitentiary. He argued unlike impaired driving cases causing death, “The child was put not in a vehicle with seat belts but in a canoe once tipped would lead to frigid waters and then a waterfall that could cause death.”

Giordano also asked for a 20-year ban on operating a vessel and a two-to-three year driving ban. He told West that the case is unique because there is no case like it where someone had been convicted of operating a canoe impaired leading to a death.

While Sillars has no prior convictions for drinking and driving, Giordano said Sillars has roughly 15 convictions for assaults, threats, and violating court orders.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Rosenthal argued for a two-year prison sentence and a five-year prohibition on operating a vessel. Rosenthal said Sillars has “a life sentence of grief and remorse knowing taking Thomas canoeing that cost Thomas his life.”

Rosenthal said Sillars is now on disability and suffers from general anxiety disorder and depression and since Thomas’ death as well as post traumatic stress disorder.

“There’s no doubt he did something stupid that day that was criminally negligent,” Rosenthal admitted.

Eight victim impact statements were submitted, including one read aloud by Thomas’s maternal grandmother Donna Posnikoff. Posnikoff addressed Sillars directly.

“You have cast a dark cloud on our family for the rest of our lives. Thomas is gone because of your stupidity,” Posnikoff read through tears.

Thomas’s mother Jessica Hooper was also in court and looked away from Posnikoff, shaking her head and crying as her mother addressed the court.

Hooper has been estranged from her family since the tragedy because she remains in a relationship with Sillars. In her victim impact statement submitted to the court, Hooper wrote, “Over the time since we lost Thomas, Dave and I have woken to nightmares together. We have held each other as we cried. Sitting in the hospital, he cried and apologized so many times.”

West will deliver his sentence in October in Bracebridge.