Canada’s Senate recently voted to remove some of the minimum sentence requirements from Bill C-15, which obliges courts to impose mandatory penalties for certain drug crimes. The amendments come six months after the Bill was passed in the House of Commons, and will permit greater judicial discretion in determining the appropriate sentence for trafficking and marijuana production offences. Sentence exemptions are also created for aboriginal offenders under the Senate’s amendments.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association welcomes the changes to Bill C-15, though it remains concerned about the many mandatory minimum sentences that remain in the proposed legislation. CCLA has long opposed the use of such sentences in all areas of Canadian law, and believes that they are particularly dangerous in the context of drug crimes. In April of 2009, the CCLA appeared before the federal Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to speak out against Bill C-15. In its submissions to the Committee, CCLA highlighted the injustice that can result from the imposition of rigid mandatory minimum sentences and urged the rejection of this blunt approach to criminal punishment.
To read CCLA’s submission to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights click here.
