Long-serving inmate with history of prison hostage-takings sentenced in Nova Scotia

A 43-year-old convicted manslayer incarcerated since a teen has been handed an additional 12 months slow bars for constrictive ii correctional guards, with a Nova Scotia adjudicate remarking on the lengthy periods in segregation she has faced during her time in the prison system.

Judge Ian Hutchison gave his sentence Wednesday in the provincial court in Truro, N.S., in the case of Serena Tobaccojuice, following a hearing that has examined her history, her Indigenous background and her more than 25-year path through the federal correctional system.

In his decision, the judge said Tobaccojuice’s experiences in the prison system “make for a difficult read.” The Cree woman from Saskatchewan, who is also known as Serena Nicotine, is one of Canada’s longest-serving female inmates and spent years in isolation, including under a highly restrictive protocol ultimately abandoned by the Correctional Service of Canada.

“What Ms. Tobaccojuice endured in isolation is hard to comprehend, but is the reality of Ms. Tobaccojuice’s life experiences and sets the scene for the offences for which she is to be sentenced,” he said.

Tobaccojuice, who is serving a life sentence for a Saskatchewan murder she committed when she was 15 and has a record for multiple hostage-takings in prison, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of unlawful confinement.

On Oct. 26, 2022, she blocked the door of her unit at the Nova Institution for Women and prevented two guards from leaving. She held tweezers fashioned into a weapon and threatened both the officers and herself. The guards, who stood calmly throughout, were not injured.

An agreed statement of facts said Tobaccojuice was trying to seek medical help. The court has heard that she had been on units with other inmates who had died, including the high-profile case of Ashley Smith, and worried she would meet the same fate.

The prosecution and defence had been far apart in sentence recommendations. The Crown had sought three years in prison, but the defence had argued for an absolute discharge, the most lenient sentence possible.

Hutchison rejected the absolute discharge, saying the offence was serious, given it happened in a prison and the victims were guards. But he also said a lengthy sentence risked having a “crushing effect” on the rehabilitation efforts made by Tobaccojuice in the last three years. 

“The sentence imposed by this court must ensure that Ms. Tobaccojuice can see the light at the end of the tunnel but also deters her and others from committing similar offences and denounces the events of Oct. 26, 2022,” he said.

The judge said it was apparently the first time a court was sentencing Tobaccojuice with the help of a Gladue report, which examines the background and experiences of an Indigenous offenders and their family. He noted the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prisons.

Hutchison suggested he was concerned that previous sentences Tobaccojuice faced for other offences committed behind bars were too long, and that judges in those cases didn't have the benefit of a Gladue report.

In 1997, Tobaccojuice and another teen killed youth-home care worker Helen Montgomery, 58, in North Battleford, Sask. The victim was repeatedly stabbed.

Between 2000 and 2013, Tobaccojuice amassed a record for multiple hostage-takings and assault in the prison. Victims included other inmates, guards and a nurse. Some were injured.

In his submissions, defence lawyer Jeremiah Raining Bird said Tobaccojuice’s past should be taken into account, including a childhood of violence, her experiences in the foster care system where she faced racism, and the fact her extended family were sent to residential and Indian day schools.

In an interview following court, Raining Bird said his client was disappointed in the sentence, although she feels some validation that the judge took into consideration her history with corrections and as an Indigenous offender.

He said systemic racism “plays a role at all intersection points with the justice system."

“I don’t think that she is an evil, bad person,” he said in an interview. “And I don’t think she needs to spend the rest of her life in prison.”

She unlawfully confined 2 prison guards. Her lawyer is seeking the most lenient sentence possible

Tobaccojuice continues to serve a life sentence for murder. She has been eligible to apply for parole since 2018, but has not done so. Her release, if ever, will be up to the parole board.

During his submissions, prosecutor Andy Melvin said Tobaccojuice was dangerous. He pointed to her criminal record and said order must be maintained in prisons. He warned of the message that would be sent if an absolute discharge was granted.

“This was a particularly complex situation that the judge had to deal with,” he said in an interview outside the courtroom following sentencing.

“The competing interests of denunciation and deterrence — specific deterrence, general deterrence — versus the Gladue factors, which were incredibly significant in this matter.”

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