By Canadian Press

B.C. court rules man’s sentencing improperly considered deportation risk

Aug 23, 2025 | 2:47 PM

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Court of Appeal says an Australian-born permanent resident who stabbed a man in Surrey, B.C., last year was given too light a sentence by a judge who improperly considered the immigration-related consequences of a prison term.

The court ruling released Friday says Jae Won Lee was given a conditional sentence of two years less a day after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and possession of a dangerous weapon in connection with a man’s March 2024 stabbing outside a social housing complex.

A wound in the man’s arm needed stitches, and he was stapled 50 times from his groin to his chest to help heal a stomach injury after the stabbing.

On Friday, the court replaced Lee’s conditional sentence order with a 42-month prison term, less time served, saying the lower court judge improperly considered, without a review, that Lee would be at risk of deportation if he is sentenced to prison.

The ruling says Lee, who was 23 at the time, first stabbed the man’s arm and was relentless in pursuing him into the building, where he stabbed him a second time in the stomach.

INCLUSIVE WORK PROGRAM

New contract to help employ recycling depot workers facing job loss in Mission

3h ago

FATAL CRASH

1 dead after single-vehicle collision at Lougheed Highway Saturday

4h ago

Surrey Police Service say a nine-year-old has died after collision with large vehicle

5h ago

The Appeal Court decision says Crown prosecutors also called Lee’s sentence “demonstrably unfit” in their appeal given the violent and unprovoked nature of the attack.

“The sentence imposed by the judge of a (conditional sentence order) of two years less a day is a clearly unreasonable departure from the fundamental principle of proportionality, notwithstanding the collateral immigration consequences,” the Appeal Court said.

“Again, the consequence in question is the loss of the right to seek a review, not the exposure to deportation. The latter consequence follows from the nature of the offence itself, not from the sentence.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2025.

The Canadian Press