An error in the maximum penalty for one offence in an aggregate sentence will vitiate the sentencing discretion unless the Crown can show no real possibility the error affected the aggregate sentence — even where the erroneous offence attracted a lesser indicative sentence than the principal offence. Where the full nature of a criminal enterprise is not known, the offender bears the onus of establishing a lesser role, and fine gradations between descriptions of an offender's position in the hierarchy (e.g., 'well above the lowest rung' versus 'a little higher than the lowest rung') cannot establish error in a discretionary sentencing judgment.
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