Mental health will be a consideration in sentencing a man accused of threatening the life of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
A sentencing date will soon be set for Jamie Dacosta, 31.
But his lawyer, Adriano Iovinelli, is pushing to get reports in front of a judge before that occurs.
Dacosta was in court for the second time this week on Thursday, and the matter was again adjourned.
“We’ll return next week to schedule a sentencing date,” Iovinelli told press.
“Then, we’d like some court reports that will assist the judge in determining what an appropriate sentence is.
“The Crown and defence, we’re a little bit apart as to what an appropriate sentence would be.”
Iovinelli said whatever the sentence is, it will include “a period of incarceration, of course.”
Dacosta was arrested by the RCMP and charged with “uttering a threat to Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney to cause death.”
The alleged threats against Carney, and members of the prime minister’s family, are said to have occurred in a YouTube video.
Dacosta also faces a number of other charges not related to the alleged incident involving Carney.
Those matters involve charges of extortion, criminal harassment, uttering threats to cause death, mischief (damage over $5,000) and being disguised with intent.
All of Dacosta’s matters are being fielded together by one special prosecutor.
While Dacosta has not yet entered any pleas to the multiple matters he faces, it’s anticipated he will.
It’s also anticipated the matters not involving the prime minister will carry the harsher sentence.
Dacosta is due back in court on Monday.
Meantime, he remains in custody at the Calgary Remand Centre.
Dacosta’s mental health
“There are some mental-health concerns regarding Mr. Dacosta that contributed to his behaviour in relation to the posting of these videos,” Iovinelli told press.
Jamie Dacosta’s mother, Kathie Dacosta, has also said as much.
“I’m not asking anyone to excuse what happened,” she recently told CTV News.
“I’m asking people to understand that someone can be facing very serious charges while also being a person who may have been struggling profoundly with his mental and emotional health.”
She said she has “watched him struggle in different areas of his life.”
Her son’s criminal record in Alberta was clean before these charges.
Several years ago, he lived in Ontario, and he has a criminal record in that province.
The court system in Ontario has confirmed the existence of several case files for Dacosta but has yet to provide them to CTV News.
“His apparent inability to understand the wrongfulness and seriousness of his actions concerns me greatly,” his mother said.
A video appearing to encourage Canadians to travel to Ottawa and commit an act of violence against Canada’s leader and members of his family was posted on a YouTube channel registered to a Jamie Dacosta.
The video was one of many posted to that YouTube channel.
All were blog-style videos.
At least one of the videos mentioned mental-health struggles.
The entire channel has since become inaccessible.
“The channel was taken down for violating our community guidelines,” a representative from YouTube Canada told CTV News via email.
