Failure to provide necessaries of life
R. v. Brush
Sentence and the Crown's position
What the law allows
Dawn Marie Brush pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life, endangering the life of an elderly woman with significant physical and cognitive challenges who had been in her paid live-in care in Kamloops for 13 years and who was found severely malnourished in 2019. The Crown sought 18 months of imprisonment followed by probation; amicus curiae suggested a conditional sentence of perhaps 12 months. Justice Donegan imposed 18 months of imprisonment followed by 18 months of probation, finding a conditional sentence would not adequately reflect denunciation and deterrence for a paid caregiver who neglected a vulnerable person and concealed it.
In the judge's words
1It must be brought home to Ms. Brush and other persons similarly employed that failing to provide those elderly and vulnerable persons in their care with the necessaries of life will not be tolerated.
The record
Sources
- R. v. Brush, 2022 BCSC 1194 Court decision, CanLII, April 11, 2022
[3] The Crown submits that a proportionate sentence in this case is 18 months imprisonment followed by a period of probation of 12-18 months.
[33] The maximum penalty for this offence is five years imprisonment when the Crown proceeds by indictment, which is the case here. There is no minimum penalty prescribed.
[1] THE COURT: On March 9, 2021, Dawn Marie Brush entered a guilty plea to the offence of failing to provide the necessaries of life to … endangering her life, contrary to s. 215(2)(b) of the Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46 [Code]. She is here today to be sentenced.
[19] Ms. Brush has no prior criminal history.
[74] … It must be brought home to Ms. Brush and other persons similarly employed that failing to provide those elderly and vulnerable persons in their care with the necessaries of life will not be tolerated.
[76] I sentence you to a period of imprisonment of 18 months. This is to be followed by an 18-month probation order.
- R. v. Brush, 2022 BCSC 1194 Court decision, Courts of British Columbia