Mary Kate Harvie

Mary Kate Harvie: ALLOWING offenders to donate to charity as part of their sentences is an "unseemly" practice that creates an impression of "unequal justice," deprives the government of cash and invites questions about bias in Manitoba's criminal courts, the province's top court has ruled. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. A rarely seen five-justice panel of the Appeal Court unanimously ruled provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie's decision to hand former Kenko Sushi owner Jung Won Choi a conditional discharge -- plus probation including a requirement to donate $6,000 each to two Winnipeg charities -- resulted in an unfit sentence and had to be struck down. Kenko Sushi is seen on Corydon in 2009. The Court of Appeal made the findings Thursday in handing down a strongly worded decision in the case of the former owner of a Corydon Avenue sushi restaurant who pleaded guilty last year to illegally employing six foreign workers between June 2008 and May 2009. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.