Former Liard First Nation chief Daniel Morris isn't through with courtrooms yet.

The B.C. Crown's office served Morris Wednesday with notice it's appealing his two-year probation sentence, said prosecution spokesman Geoff Gaul.

The appeal was filed with the B.C. Court of Appeal last Thursday.

April 21 has been set aside for hearing the appeal in Vancouver, though that date is still subject to change.

'The Crown is of the view that the trial judge erred by failing to give sufficient emphasis to the sentencing objectives of denunciation and general deterrence, and the aggravating factor in our view that the offender in committing some of the offences abused his spouse,' Gaul said Wednesday.

'The Crown is also saying that ... the trial judge erred in principle by failing to impose a sentence that was proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of the offender's responsibility,' Gaul added.

The Crown may bring forward other grounds for appeal as well, he noted.

On Feb. 26 in Lower Post, B.C., a provincial court judge gave Morris a suspended sentence and two years' probation for a two-hour forcible confinement and assault on his estranged wife after Morris caught the woman with her lover.

He'd also pointed his .30-.30 rifle at the other man and threatened him.

Once he was convicted, he lost his job as chief of the Watson Lake-area first nation. A new chief has since been elected.

The sentence was slammed by women's and victims' groups as being far too light, though Hammond Dick, chief of the Kaska Nation, has publicly supported the judge's measure. He has argued it's time to reject jail and return to traditional first nations justice practices.

Organizations and individuals in Whitehorse and Watson Lake had called on Yukoners and British Columbia residents who opposed the probation sentence to write to the B.C. government, demanding it be appealed.

Petitions calling for an appeal were circulated throughout the city, and a vigil protesting the sentence was held on the steps of the law centre in Whitehorse.