Martin Tremblay faces dangerous offender hearing

A man with a history of plying teenage girls with alcohol and drugs, and then sexually assaulting them had a dangerous offender hearing on Monday in B.C. Supreme Court.

Crown prosecutors are asking the court to designate convicted criminal Martin Tremblay as a dangerous offender. If they are successful, Tremblaycould face an indefinite prison sentence.

But his hearing comes as the section of the Criminal Code of Canada dealing with dangerous offenders faces a constitutional challenge.

In 2012 an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled the law, which was changed in 2008 by the federal Conservatives,violates Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Then in 2014 a B.C. Supreme Court Justice reached a similar conclusion.

A separate hearing is expected in February to determine if that law is unconstitutional or still reasonable.

Record of sexual assaults

Tremblay's criminal record dates back decades, but his latest conviction came two years ago in the deaths of 16-year-old Kayla Lalonde and 17-year-old Martha Jackson.

Both died at Tremblay's Richmond house in March of 2010 after he invited them in and gave them alcohol and narcotics.

When they passed out from intoxication, he filmed himself fondling the young women. The court ruled he did little to help them as they died.

Tremblay has similar convictions in the past.

In 2002 he was convicted of five counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 14 months for plying five aboriginal teenaged girls with drugs and alcohol and then videotaping his sex acts with them after they passed out.

In 2011, police issued a warning about Tremblay, who was 45 years old and in jail at that time, asking for victims to come forward so that he could be kept in jail.