Accused money launderer Glenn Sheck at the 2012 funeral of gangster Tom Gisby

The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould should have paid more attention to Glenn Sheck’s indigenous heritage before ordering him to be sent to the U.S. to face money laundering charges.

The court sent Sheck’s case back to the new justice minister for reconsideration.

Last year, Wilson-Raybould ordered that Sheck, charged with laundering millions in drug proceeds in the U.S., to be surrendered to the Americans for trial.

Sheck then asked B.C.’s highest court to review that decision in light of his heritage and the impact on his four children of any potential U.S. sentence.

In a decision Friday, two of the three judges sided with Sheck’s legal team, saying that Wilson-Raybould “failed to consider their Indigenous heritage and the context of the historical mistreatment by Canada of Indigenous families which forcibly separated children from their parents and culture.”

“These were relevant factors in light of the much more severe sentence Mr. Sheck faced in the U.S. if convicted,” Justices Susan Griffin and Bruce Butler said.

Sheck is alleged to have “acted as a money broker and directed 26 money laundering transactions involving drug trafficking proceeds of more than $7 million” between 2007 and 2012, the ruling said.

“The U.S. alleges that 23 of these transactions involved Mr. Sheck directing the pick‑up and delivery of large amounts of money in the U.S. It is alleged that Mr. Sheck directed the pick‑up of money in Canada and delivery of it to locations in Canada and the Dominican Republic on three occasions.”

Justice Mary Saunders, the third judge who heard the case, disagreed with her colleagues.

She said in a dissenting opinion that the former minister did consider the relevant factors before making her decision to send Sheck south.

“I am satisfied that Mr. Sheck’s surrender would not be unjust or oppressive, nor would it violate the principles of fundamental justice on the basis of his family’s interests alone,” Saunders said.

Sheck was an associate of the late Tom Gisby, who was shot to death in Mexico in April 2012.

And he was convicted convicted in 2012 on firearms charges after he was caught with a loaded Glock pistol in his Louis Vuitton man purse in a Surrey Earl’s restaurant in November 2010. Gang cops were doing surveillance on him at the time.

The U.S. charges were laid against him in January 2013.

Sheck’s lawyers told the Court of Appeal that he now works in a family business to support his children.