Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 28, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A 47-year-old Yellowknife man got a hefty fine, but no jail time after he was convicted for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer and having cocaine in his possession.

On Nov. 13, James Bourque was sentenced to pay a total of $2,300 on two counts of possession of a controlled substance after a plea bargain resulted in no charges of trafficking being laid.

Crown lawyer Maureen McGuire said that on May 24, 2007, an undercover police officer approached Bourque in the Raven Pub, asking for marijuana, and that the accused then "asked him how much he needed."

She said the officer asked for a gram, and paid Bourque $20 for what later turned out to be 0.7 grams of the drug. Bourque was not arrested, however, for another month.

On June 24, an officer recognized Bourque driving in a car, and arrested him at that time.

"After he was arrested, the officer noticed that he was holding his hand closed tightly," McGuire said, adding that after inspection, the officer discovered that the accused had a baggie of cocaine in his hand, which was discovered to contain one gram of the substance.

McGuire and Bourque's defence lawyer, Daniel Rideout, put forward a joint submission in Bourque's case, both recommending a fine of $1,000 for the pot, and a fine in the $800 to $1,000 range for the cocaine.

McGuire said the accused's guilty plea to the offence of possession was the result of several factors relating to the crown's case.

In addition to the delay in arrest and the small amounts of the two drugs, she also said having the matter go to trial would have involved bringing in officers that are currently posted in B.C. and Alberta.

McGuire also said Bourque had two prior convictions for drug possession, which he had received lesser fines for, and noted that this would be his last fine.

"This would be the last time the Crown would not be seeking a jail term for this accused," she said.

After handing down his sentence of two $1,000 fines, each capped with a $150 victims of crime surcharge, Judge Brian Bruser commented on the rest of Bourque's criminal record, after the accused had made his own brief statement regarding his addiction to cocaine and dealing with "his mistakes."

"This is 27 years worth of mistakes," Bruser said, holding Bourque's two-page record sheet.

"The police have your number. They know where you are. If you go back to cocaine, you will get caught."