Case of fiery attack at Saskatoon high school set to conclude in court Monday

The teen who lit her classmate on fire at a Saskatoon high school returns to court on Monday to learn the judge's decision on her sentence.

At her sentencing hearing last month, the Crown and defence jointly recommended the maximum youth sentence for the crime of attempted murder: two years in secure custody followed by one year of community supervision.

The teen has been in custody since the date of the attack, and the three-year sentence would be in addition to her time on remand. It would be served under the intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision (IRCS) program, a therapeutic option for youth suffering from a mental illness or disorder who are convicted of the most serious offences.

The young offender was 14 years old when she poured flammable liquid over the 15-year-old victim's head and lit it on fire in a hallway at Evan Hardy Collegiate on Sept. 5, 2024. The identities of both teens, who are now 16, are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The victim suffered burns to 40 per cent of her body and spent months in hospital. Her recovery has continued to be long and painful, with multiple surgeries, scarring and disfigurement, her mother told court last month in a victim impact statement.

Her daughter was "robbed of her Grade 10 year" — and although she is attending a new school now, her Grade 12 graduation will be pushed back at least a year as she catches up and slowly integrates back into school, she said.

It feels like the offender "attacked the whole family," the victim's mother said, and they don't know when or where they will actually be able to feel safe again.

The attack affected the entire school community, court heard last month. Some students and staff ultimately transferred out of the school in the aftermath of the traumatic event.

The Crown initially indicated it would seek an adult sentence for the teen, but changed its position last year. Crown prosecutor Zachary Huywan explained the change in court last month, acknowledging that many people in the community could find it "probably shocking."

He spoke about a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision that provided guidelines on when it's appropriate to seek an adult sentence. The application can't be based simply on how horrific a crime is, but instead should only be done in cases where the Crown can prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the offender had "adult-like" age, maturity and capacity for moral judgment, Huywan said.

In the Supreme Court case, the judges set aside an adult sentence imposed on a 17-year-old offender in a violent first-degree murder case. They found the sentencing judge had imposed the wrong standard by over-emphasizing the seriousness of the crime rather than looking at the circumstances and developmental age of the offender.

In the case of the fiery attempted murder in Saskatoon, the offender was 14 years old and has been diagnosed with a number of mental disorders. She is "not a high-functioning individual," Huywan said, and lacks social and emotional maturity.

Her defence lawyers, Fola Adelugba and Jonathan Stockdale, emphasized that the intensive youth sentence would offer the best chance for rehabilitation and reintegration. The programming is designed to address the "underlying factors" that led to the offender's behaviour, Adelugba said.

She said the sentence "is how we protect the public in the long run."