Sask. man who took daughter to prevent her from getting COVID vaccine tells court he has been punished enough

The sentencing hearing for the Carnduff, Sask., man who withheld his seven-year-old daughter from her mother to prevent the girl from getting a COVID-19 vaccine resumed Monday at the Court of King's Bench in Regina.

The offence occurred over 100 days in 2021 and 2022.

In April, 55-year-old Michael Gordon Jackson was found guilty by a jury of contravention of a custody order. He spent Monday morning explaining why he feels he has been punished enough.

Jackson also admitted he has no remorse for his actions.

"It is my God-given responsibility to protect [my daughter] from any harm, be it physical, emotional or spiritual," he said. "For me to show remorse for the steps I took to protect her would be hypocrisy in every sense of the meaning."

Back in August, prosecutor Zoey Kim-Zeggelaar suggested a two-year prison sentence with credit for time served on remand, plus three years of probation and 200 hours of community service. On Monday, Jackson told the court he did not deserve that sentence.

Jackson references Dawn Walker case

Addressing Court of King's Bench Justice Heather MacMillan-Brown, Jackson compared his case to past abduction cases in which, he claims, the defendants got much lighter sentences than the Crown suggested for him. He also referred to cases Kim-Zeggelaar used as precedent examples when suggesting sentencing in August.

"I find it disturbing that the Crown left out the most recent case in Canadian law, which is [Dawn Walker]," Jackson said. 

Walker, a Saskatoon woman, was sentenced in November 2023 for abducting her child and using false identification to take the child illegally across the border into the U.S. In that case, Judge Brad Mitchell accepted a joint submission from the prosecutor and defence of a one-year conditional sentence followed by 18 months of probation for Walker. That meant Walker would serve her sentence in the community, so long as she abided by strict court-imposed conditions.

Walker and her legal team have repeatedly insisted that she fled the country in a desperate bid to protect her child and herself from her ex-partner. Her ex-partner denies all allegations of domestic abuse.

"She was heinous in her actions. I was not," Jackson said on Monday. "This case is crucial in comparing and asking what sentence is appropriate for me."

Jackson highlighted his correspondence with the RCMP while his and his daughter's whereabouts were unknown. He said he both negotiated with police and showed that the little girl was OK.

"I have been dealt far greater punishment already than jurisprudence can ask for," Jackson said.

When responding to this portion of Jackson's sentencing argument, Kim-Zeggelaar said Walker's case is dissimilar due to the joint submission. She said there is no way of knowing how the lawyers reached an agreement.

Prosecutor suggests conditional sentence not appropriate

Jackson said he has been barred from seeing his daughter. In response, Kim-Zeggelaar told the judge that Jackson's contact with his daughter has been left in the hands of the family law court, not the Court of King's Bench.

Kim-Zeggelaar addressed the prospect of a conditional sentence — house arrest  — for Jackson, saying it would be a risky move.

"You can't say that he would never move again," Kim-Zeggelaar said. "If [he had] another righteous motive in his mind, he would do this again, unhesitating. So that risk still exists."

Kim-Zeggelaar said the Crown's initial sentencing suggestion would be appropriate in Jackson's case because incarceration may be "the only suitable language to express society's condemnation of the offender's conduct."

"I suggest that he's already set precedent for violating court orders and there's no way to know how effective that would be in terms of both addressing the sentences … and holding him accountable for his actions."

The judge is scheduled to deliver her sentencing decision on Dec. 6.