Woman serving life sentenced to additional year for confining prison guards in N.S.

By Lyndsay Armstrong A Cree woman serving a life sentence in Nova Scotia was given an additional 12 months for unlawfully confining two prison guards, in a decision acknowledging possible mistreatment by the court system. Serena Tobaccojuice, who is one of Canada’s longest serving female inmates, has been incarcerated for over 25 years. She was formerly known as Serena Nicotine. Her lawyer, Jeremiah Raining Bird, asked for a complete discharge on the basis her traumatic history and Indigenous identity have never before been considered by the courts. Tobaccojuice was 15 when she killed a group home operator in North Battleford, Sask., in 1997. Two years later, she was sentenced as an adult to life in prison. Last November, she  pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful confinement for an incident…

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