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JUDGE TAKES JUSTICE SYSTEM TO TASK FOR FAILING CANADIANS

Chris lam­bie

15 Apr 2026

An Ontario judge has launched a remark­able attack on the Cana­dian judi­ciary, arguing that the justice sys­tem is “at an inflex­ion point” and must decide whether to pri­or­it­ize the needs of vul­ner­able Cana­dians or crim­in­als who have abused them.

Ontario Justice Ant­o­nio Skarica’s broad­side on his fel­low judges came as he sen­tenced a Nigerian uni­versity stu­dent who extor­ted a Cana­dian woman and left her in “con­stant fear” by shar­ing her intim­ate image. He sen­tenced Boss Omeire to 28 months in prison.

“In my opin­ion, the Cana­dian justice sys­tem is at an inflex­ion point. Who should get pri­or­ity: Should it be a for­eign-born indi­vidual with no cur­rent immig­ra­tion status, who was gran­ted the priv­ilege of attend­ing one of our edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions, and used that oppor­tun­ity to abuse a law-abid­ing, hon­est, hard­work­ing but vul­ner­able Cana­dian cit­izen? Ask­ing that ques­tion provides the obvi­ous answer,” wrote Skarica in sen­ten­cing Omeire.

“I believe that the accused was in large part suc­cess­ful in ruin­ing the com­plain­ant’s life as he threatened and prom­ised while the offence was occur­ring.”

The Crown had sought a sen­tence of two years less a day. Omeire’s law­yer “did not spe­cify a num­ber, but wishes less time than the Crown requests,” the judge noted.

Omeire’s par­ents urged the judge to grant him a con­di­tional dis­charge so he could stay in Canada.

The case comes as judges grapple with the ques­tion of how much, if at all, immig­ra­tion con­sequences should factor into sen­ten­cing.

The courts … often talk about the prin­ciples of deterrence and denun­ci­ation, and then con­tra­dict those gran­di­ose pro­clam­a­tions by insti­tut­ing rel­at­ively light sen­tences. These pro­clam­a­tions are akin to what appears to be an ongo­ing cur­rent Cana­dian cul­tural trend to express shock and out­rage at crim­inal attacks on vul­ner­able tar­gets, fol­lowed by hol­low words of con­dem­na­tion such as, ‘This is not who we are,’ fol­lowed again by rel­at­ive inac­tion, thereby ignor­ing the dis­turb­ing real­ity that this is now clearly what we have indeed become.

Judge Ant­o­nio Skarica, ontario Super­ior court of Justice

A Que­bec judge recently accused the pro­vin­cial pro­sec­utor of reg­u­larly pro­pos­ing abso­lute dis­charges or leni­ent sen­tences for non-Cana­dians con­victed of crimes because it puts them at risk of deport­a­tion. That cre­ates an “unne­ces­sary” two-tier sys­tem, con­cluded Court of Que­bec Judge Ant­oine Piché.

The courts “often talk about the prin­ciples of deterrence and denun­ci­ation, and then con­tra­dict those gran­di­ose pro­clam­a­tions by insti­tut­ing rel­at­ively light sen­tences,” said Skarica, who was a Pro­gress­ive Con­ser­vat­ive mem­ber of the Legis­lat­ive Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2000, rep­res­ent­ing the Hamilton area.

“These pro­clam­a­tions are akin to what appears to be an ongo­ing cur­rent Cana­dian cul­tural trend to express shock and out­rage at crim­inal attacks on vul­ner­able tar­gets, fol­lowed by hol­low words of con­dem­na­tion such as, ‘This is not who we are,’ fol­lowed again by rel­at­ive inac­tion, thereby ignor­ing the dis­turb­ing real­ity that this is now clearly what we have indeed become.”

Omeire was con­victed this year of extort­ing $50 from his former girl­friend in March 2023, trans­mit­ting an intim­ate image of her without her con­sent, and three counts of breach­ing his bail con­di­tions.

“The accused and K.B., the com­plain­ant, had been in an intim­ate rela­tion­ship,” Skarica said in his March 30 decision. “The accused deman­ded $50 or he would dis­trib­ute sexu­ally expli­cit videos of the com­plain­ant hav­ing sex with the accused.”

Omeire had prom­ised the woman “that her life would be com­pletely decim­ated by the next day,” said the judge, not­ing she “prac­tic­ally begged the accused not to send the expli­cit video.”

She paid Omeire the $50, but he “pos­ted the sexu­ally expli­cit video any­way,” Skarica said. He noted the woman had a gag in her mouth in the video Omeire pos­ted on his private Snapchat story.

Omeire “told K.B. that eleven people had viewed the intim­ate image, and seven people had replied,” said the decision. “The vic­tim indic­ated, ‘This is black­mail,’ and the accused said it was not black­mail; it was tor­ture.”

Omeire “was sub­sequently arres­ted and released on bail but viol­ated the release terms by con­tinu­ing to con­tact the com­plain­ant.”

The judge found Omeire “inten­tion­ally viol­ated K.B.’S dig­nity in a vari­ety of ways in trans­mit­ting or threat­en­ing to trans­mit the intim­ate image.” Omeire told her “that her life would be decim­ated. She would not recog­nize her life.”

Skarica con­cluded that Omeire “inten­tion­ally used the intim­ate image to frighten and psy­cho­lo­gic­ally tor­ment the vic­tim in an attempt to strip her of her dig­nity. Accord­ingly, the accused flag­rantly, cruelly, and delib­er­ately invaded her reas­on­able expect­a­tion of pri­vacy in the intim­ate image he dis­trib­uted” on March 15, 2023.

Omeire, born in Lagos, had been an inter­na­tional stu­dent in Canada since 2014. His sis­ter and two broth­ers fol­lowed him to Canada; their par­ents live in Nigeria.

Omeire doesn’t work, but he “star­ted his own online min­istry” in 2023, said the decision. His father still sup­ports him.

He had been study­ing chem­ical engin­eer­ing at the Uni­versity of Water­loo, but Omeire’s stud­ies are “on hold in his third year due to the mat­ter before the court.”

The judge ques­tioned “what ser­i­ous stu­dent takes nine years to obtain a four-year degree?”

Omeire “had a marijuana use prob­lem from 2016 up until 2023,” said the decision. “He stopped smoking marijuana in 2023 and has no issues with alco­hol or illi­cit drugs.”

Omeire failed to leave Canada in 2023 when his stu­dent per­mit expired, said the decision. “The accused cur­rently has no legal status in Canada, and has a removal order.”

His par­ents and sis­ters asked the judge “for a con­di­tional dis­charge to enable the accused to com­plete his stud­ies,” said the decision. “The par­ents indic­ate between 2016 and 2021 the accused was hos­pit­al­ized for drug-induced psy­chosis and bipolar dis­order.”

A let­ter from Omeire’s par­ents indic­ated that “dur­ing his three years on bail he ded­ic­ated him­self to God, walk­ing the streets to evan­gel­ize and ment­or­ing young people to avoid the traps that led to his own mis­takes. Even now in the cor­rec­tional facil­ity, he con­tin­ues to min­is­ter to fel­low inmates. He is a man of faith seek­ing redemp­tion not a career crim­inal.”

Omeire’s par­ents note a “sen­tence of six months or more would strip him of his right to appeal his removal on human­it­arian grounds. We pas­sion­ately plead for a con­di­tional dis­charge. This is the only path that allows his legal team to argue for a stay in Canada, enabling him to remain in our care to man­age his psy­chosis and finally com­plete his degree at the Uni­versity of Water­loo. To deport him now would per­man­ently erase the dec­ades of sac­ri­fice and the hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars we have inves­ted in edu­ca­tion.”

The “char­ac­ter they por­tray,” said the judge, “is totally at odds with the evid­ence of the accused’s char­ac­ter and actions proved at this trial bey­ond a reas­on­able doubt.”

K.B. described Omeira as “force­ful, stern, manip­u­lat­ive, and that he thinks he is above every­one else,” said the decision.

The woman told the court that the events that unfol­ded between her and Omeira in the spring of 2023 “made me feel com­pletely power­less. Being threatened and extor­ted made it feel like Boss was in full con­trol to do whatever he wanted to me. See­ing the expli­cit video of me phys­ic­ally pos­ted to the social media plat­form made my heart sink. An act that I did in private with someone who I thought I could trust, out there for any­body to see. It made me feel sick to my stom­ach, and I felt all my autonomy dis­ap­pear.”

She described “liv­ing in con­stant fear,” for the last three years, “know­ing that at any time he can make a reappear­ance.”

The woman was dia­gnosed with post-trau­matic stress dis­order “because of what Boss had done to me,” said the decision.

The judge noted Omeire took the “stand and indic­ated that he is in fact very sorry for what he has done.”

But Omeire con­tac­ted his vic­tim mul­tiple times after he was first arres­ted, “thereby dis­play­ing a cal­lous dis­reg­ard and dis­respect for court orders and the com­plain­ant her­self,” said the judge.

Skarica noted “the unfor­tu­nate fact that the Cana­dian pub­lic has the per­cep­tion that the Cana­dian justice sys­tem is soft on crime, and fur­ther pri­or­it­izes the rights of crim­in­als over the rights of vic­tims. Regret­tably, the his­tory of these pro­ceed­ings provides ample and fur­ther sup­port for that pub­lic per­cep­tion.”

Omeire shouldn’t have been at large on bail in 2023, Skarica said. “He should not have been in this coun­try at all.”