Charles Dixon arrived with a bus load of support at the Vancouver Provincial Court Tuesday, to hear the sentence of a 21-year-old man who attacked him one year ago while he was driving a bus in Burnaby.
“There has to be jail time. If there’s no jail time, it’ll be a very sad day for myself and all the other operators who have been physically assaulted,” Dixon told media outside the courthouse ahead of the sentencing hearing.
His attacker, Del Louie, arrived at court accompanied by a support worker. Inside the courtroom, he apologized to Dixon and his son, who was also on the bus at the time of the attack.
Louie said he was horrified by the photos he saw of Dixon, and that he wants to turn his life around.
His defence counsel told the court that his client has fetal alcohol syndrome. Both of his parents were alcoholics and drug addicts.
Louie’s counsel reminded the judge that because their client is Aboriginal, the judge needed to consider a sentence that included no jail time. They would like to see a conditional sentence of about 18 months.
There was no decision, however, as the judge decided to delay sentencing to go over material submitted by Louie’s newly-hired lawyer.
The bus drivers’ union, who was at the hearing in support of Dixon, reacted angrily to the delay.
“Since Charles was assaulted, there has been 140 assaults against our members since February 2011. The delay in this case does nothing to send a message to the people who assault our bus drivers and make our buses unsafe,” said Don MacLeod, President of the CAW.
Dixon has been off work for a year and is still going through rehab.
Coincidentally today, the B.C. government appointed nine, new provincial court judges in the hopes of easing caseload pressures and help ease court delays.
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