Article content

The lawyer for a man found guilty of crashing his SUV into an Edmonton restaurant patio and killing a young boy in 2013 said he’s grateful his client has been granted a rare leave to appeal by Canada’s highest court.

Richard Suter’s defence lawyer, Dino Bottos, said Thursday he felt “relief and gratitude” when he heard that the Supreme Court of Canada would hear the case.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Supreme Court of Canada to hear Richard Suter's appeal of longer sentence Back to video

“It provides me with a sense of spirit and optimism that they see merit in our appeal,” Bottos said. “If they did not see merit in our appeal, they would not have granted leave.”

The Crown Prosecutors’ Office declined to comment in detail Thursday, saying it would be “inappropriate” to do so now that the appeal process is underway.

Suter’s case was the only leave to appeal granted Thursday by the Supreme Court. The court rejected 25 other applications.

In August 2016, the Court of Appeal of Alberta accepted the Crown’s appeal that the initial four-month sentence was “unfit,” and imposed a harsher sentence of 26 months. Suter’s own appeal, filed in response to the Crown’s and arguing that the original sentence should be shortened, was rejected.