Nunavut Legal Aid is making its debut as an intervener at the Supreme Court of Canada in a constitutional case involving an Indigenous offender given jail time instead of a community-based conditional sentence.

The case, being heard on March 23, involves Cheyenne Sharma, a woman of Ojibwa ancestry and member of the Saugeen First Nation who, according to court documents, pleaded guilty to illegally importing cocaine into Canada.

According to the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruling in R. v. Sharma, 2020 ONCA 478, Sharma was arrested June 2015 after authorities found almost two kilograms of cocaine in her luggage upon her return from a trip to South America.