R. v. Cope

Decided: 2026-10-09. Docket: 41431. Citation: 2026 SCC 32 (CanLII). Criminal and statutory offences — Sentencing — Aggravated assault — Intimate partner violence — Indigenous offender and Indigenous woman victim — Custodial sentence required given grave violence and vulnerability of victim — Whether substituted three-year sentence fit and proportionate — Appeal dismissed | Procedure — Appeals — Sentencing — Appellate deference — Error in principle — Whether Court of Appeal misapplied deferential standard of review in varying sentence — Intervention permitted where error in principle impacted sentence — Crown appeal from reduced sentence dismissed — Appeal dismissed | Criminal and statutory offences — Sentencing principles — Criminal Code, ss. 718.04, 718.201, 718.2(e) — Indigenous offender