A man convicted of trafficking cocaine and illegally selling marijuana in Skidegate has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Greenwood sentenced Shaun Jackson Smith on July 9 in Prince George. Smith was convicted on May 12, 2025, of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possession of marijuana for the purpose of selling.
Greenwood gave Smith credit for 170 days already spent in custody, but declined to award enhanced credit.
The judge found Smith had contributed to delays in the proceedings, including by failing to attend scheduled sentencing hearings.
Crown and defence lawyers agreed Smith should receive a jail sentence rather than a conditional sentence served in the community, but disagreed on how long he should remain in custody.
The Crown sought a 30-month sentence for the cocaine offence and a concurrent six-month sentence for the marijuana offence, minus credit for time already served. The defence sought a sentence of between 15 and 24 months, along with enhanced credit for Smith’s pre-sentence custody.
The charges stemmed from a Nov. 25, 2022, police response to a report of a domestic assault in progress at Smith’s Skidegate home.
Smith was handcuffed following a brief struggle. During a safety search, an officer found nine individually wrapped half-gram bags of crack cocaine in the pocket of Smith’s sweatpants.
An officer entered the home to check on the well-being of Smith’s girlfriend before police obtained a warrant to search the residence.
Officers later found 30.5 grams of crack cocaine concealed inside a modified Heinz tomato can. Police also seized packaging materials and a drug-processing kit containing two scales with residue, nitrile gloves and a plastic container.
The court also heard Smith was operating an illegal marijuana dispensary from the residence.
“There was a large number of cannabis products and paraphernalia for sale in the home, some with price tags,” Greenwood said.
“There was also a point-of-sale terminal in the laundry room.”
Smith had previous convictions for assault causing bodily harm, breaching probation, possessing a firearm and possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking.
Greenwood said Smith’s previous trafficking conviction was particularly significant because the new offences occurred less than two months after Smith completed a 10-month jail sentence.
Smith was born in Skidegate but is estranged from his family and Indigenous culture. The Skidegate Band Council previously passed a resolution banishing him from its reserve lands.
During the sentencing hearing on July 8, Deputy Chief Councillor Trent Moraes submitted a community impact statement urging the court to impose a custodial sentence.
Moraes said Smith’s conduct had caused women to fear for their safety and left community members reluctant to report concerns because they feared retaliation.
A pre-sentence report examined Smith’s history and Indigenous background. Greenwood found Indigenous sentencing factors reduced Smith’s moral blameworthiness to some extent, but did not outweigh the aggravating circumstances.
“He was not feeding a drug habit, was trafficking for profit and did so despite having been recently released from custody for similar offences,” Greenwood said.
“In my view, the sheer number of aggravating factors, Mr. Smith’s prior record, the nature of the drug, the fact that he was trafficking in a small community, as well as the financial motivation behind the offences, outweigh those mitigating factors that are present.”
Greenwood also prohibited Smith from possessing firearms and explosives and ordered him to provide a DNA sample.
The Crown supported a defence request that Greenwood recommend Smith serve his sentence at Kwìkwèxwelhp Healing Village, a minimum-security federal institution for Indigenous men near Harrison Mills.
“It seems logical to conclude that he would benefit,” Greenwood said. “And so might society.”