A former Toronto pharmacy owner who participated in a scheme to supply fentanyl to a Sudbury drug dealer has had her jail sentence reduced.
Shereen El-Azrak received a 13-year jail sentence for trafficking and possession of fentanyl. The scheme was uncovered by investigations by the Ontario College of Pharmacists and Greater Sudbury Police between October and November 2015.
“The Greater Sudbury Police Service were investigating a local fentanyl trafficker by the name of Sean Holmes,” said the transcript of the appeal.
“The police discovered that Mr. Holmes was receiving his fentanyl from Liridon Imerovik in York Region.”
Further investigation uncovered that Imerovik was the delivery driver for El-Azrak’s pharmacy. Phone records showed there were 1,300 communications between them in a four-month span.
A southern Ontario doctor, George Otto, was jailed 12 years for writing the prescriptions. El-Azrak paid him to write the prescriptions, which her pharmacy filled and then sold to Holmes.
In her appeal, she argued that her right to privacy was violated by the Ontario College of Pharmacists, which gave details of the pharmacy’s drug history to police.
The appeal court rejected that argument, saying the drug usage report didn’t contain personal information – only dates, quantities and strength of the prescriptions.
And considering her position, “she did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information that was warrantlessly provided by the OCP to the police.”
In terms of the sentence, however, the court noted that the 13-year term handed down was more than the 12-year term sought by the Crown.
“The trial judge noted that this was the appellant’s first offence and that she had what he described as good rehabilitative potential,” the transcript said.
“Even so, for the trial judge, the seriousness of the offence, including that it was motivated strictly by greed, required that a 13-year sentence be imposed.”
However, a similar case involving worse offences ended up in a 12-year sentence.
“This creates an issue of parity,” the appeals court ruled.
Also relevant is the fact El-Azrak has Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, a very rare genetic disease that causes tumours to grow throughout her body.
“The appellant was … has gone through countless surgeries, has had recurrent kidney cancers and lives with tumours in her nervous system that are closely monitored,” the transcript said.
“The appellant’s mother also had the disease. She died from it in 2018, which was during the trial of this matter. The appellant also has an aunt who died from the disease at 56 years of age. She also has another uncle who died from the disease at 54 years of age.”
EXTREME EFFECT
In reducing her sentence, the appeals court ruled that the trial judge should have taken her condition into account when determining the sentence.
In determining how long someone should go to jail, judges take into account whether “there is evidence suggesting that a term of imprisonment would be experienced by an offender in a disproportionate manner because of collateral circumstance.”
In other words, a 13-year sentence would have an “extreme” effect on El-Azrak because of her illness and the fact her children are also battling the disease. She is a single mother whose former spouse lives in Egypt.
“The trial judge erred by failing to take these sentencing principles into account and overlooking the severe negative effect that this sentence would have on the appellant,” the court ruled.
“The appellant’s and her daughter’s disease is extraordinary. The appellant’s condition is very advanced. She has lost sight in one eye and has a tumour developing in the other. She has tumours throughout her body. She works with a medical team and time is critically of the essence.”
However, since her crime was particularly serious, a jail sentence is still appropriate. The court reduced her term to eight years, leaving the option open for her to apply for early parole “if the inmate is suffering from exceptional circumstances.”
Read the full transcript here.
