Bre McAdam
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
More than three years after he was convicted of a random home invasion and sexual assault in Saskatoon, Joseph Simon Peter Yaremko has been designated a dangerous offender.
In his 121-page written decision, Justice Daryl Labach found that nothing short of an indeterminate sentence would “adequately protect the public against the commission by him of murder or a serious personal injury offence.”
While the sentencing process is heavily dependent on a person’s extensive criminal history, the predicate offence that sparked Yaremko’s DO hearing happened in 2019.
He confined a 21-year-old woman in her Stonebridge neighbourhood condo after he pushed his way inside, forced her at knifepoint to use drugs and raped her before she escaped two days later.
A Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench judge found him guilty of sexual assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and breaking and entering after a trial in 2020.
The Crown sought a dangerous offender assessment and a hearing was held last year.
Court heard Yaremko, now 43, has more than 100 prior convictions and has been institutionalized for nearly a third of his life.
“For the last 30 years, Mr. Yaremko has paid nothing but lip service to the fact he needs to change. Despite his comments that he wants to change, he has shown no willingness or motivation to change. This has been well documented in his incarceration records and court reports,” Labach wrote.
During closing arguments, Crown prosecutor Lee Hnatiuk said Yaremko poses a significant risk to the public, meets all the criteria for a dangerous offender designation and should be held in custody for an indeterminate amount of time.
Defence lawyer Evan Strelioff argued his client should receive a fixed sentence of 15 years followed by a 10-year long-term supervision order that would have Yaremko monitored in the community well into his 60s.
A forensic psychologist assigned to assess Yaremko testified that he often uses cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine instead of medication, and commits most of his crimes either while intoxicated or in the pursuit of drugs.
“Simply adding another period of supervision is not going to help Mr. Yaremko learn to be drug-free. He has never been able to do that in the past while out in the community or while incarcerated, and I have been provided no evidence that there is a reasonable expectation that that will change,” Labach wrote.
While he was awaiting trial in 2019, Yaremko trapped a female Regional Psychiatric Centre employee in a shoe room after giving her a graphic, sexual letter that led her to believe he was going to rape her.
In 2014, Yaremko was pulled over in a truck with stolen semi tires, jumped into the driver’s seat and rammed the police cruiser, driving off while two officers held onto the truck doors.
He then escaped from the forensic unit at the Saskatchewan Hospital in Battleford, where he was being assessed. He was arrested days later after a five-hour standoff with police.
A psychological court report written in 2012 concluded that “Mr. Yaremko is treatable through a range of mental health professionals available to him in the community and institutionally but, so far, he has not engaged well or maintained treatment in order for his treatment to be effective in the long run.”
Court heard Yaremko was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADHD with “anti-social personality traits” that include impulsivity and manipulation.
Summarizing the doctor’s testimony at the DO hearing, Labach concluded that “Mr. Yaremko is caught in a vicious cycle: his anti-social traits perpetuate his drug problem, but his drug problem perpetuates his anti-social traits. He has largely refused any programming, treatment or counselling for his significant addictions issues and the little that he has had, he has either not finished or has not learned anything from it.”
