Finally, in determining if and when the dangerous offender provisions should apply, the Court of Appeal determined that, “the question is whether, relatively speaking compared to all other offenders in Canada - male and female, young and old, advantaged and disadvantaged - Neve falls into that small group of offenders clustered at or near the extreme end of offenders in this country.” They also found that Lisa Neve did not fit into that group at all, overturned her dangerous offender designation and substituted a penitentiary term of three years as a “fit and proper sentence for the robbery”.

Within two days, Lisa went from facing the rest of her life in prison to being released from prison. While CAEFS and other women’s and Aboriginal groups have applauded the decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal because of the very real and tangible benefit it provided to and for Lisa, there is considerable regret that the Court did not allow CAEFS, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, the DisAbled Women’s Network and the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund to intervene in support of Lisa’s case. We argued that it was important for the Court to examine the overriding Charter equality implications of Justice Murray’s decision.

The Court of Appeal did not permit our coalition to intervene as they determined that Lisa’s lawyer could canvas any equality arguments. Then, they declined to address the equality arguments because they found it unnecessary once they had decided that the dangerous offender label was wrongly applied to Lisa. Fortunately, however, the very thorough analyses of the facts and the law by the Honourable Chief Justice Fraser, Madam Justice Conrad and Madam Justice Picard, provide a viable basis for us to extract the implications for future equality arguments. Most significantly, it will assist others, especially men, who have been labelled as dangerous offenders.