Senator to introduce bill aimed at mandatory minimum penalties

OTTAWA — An Ontario senator tired of waiting for the Liberals to bring in their promised changes to mandatory minimum penalties while they watch how they fare in the courts, is now prepared to go it alone.

Independent Sen. Kim Pate said she plans to introduce legislation that would allow judges to decide whether they should impose mandatory minimum penalties on offenders at sentencing time.

“They are in the best position to determine: is this is an appropriate place for the application of the mandatory minimum penalty?” said Pate, who was a longtime advocate for the rights of prisoners before she was named to the Senate in November 2016.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tasked Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould with reviewing the controversial sentencing reforms the previous Conservative government brought in as part of their tough-on-crime agenda.

Many of those changes involved imposing or increasing mandatory minimum penalties for dozens of offences. The Supreme Court has already struck down two of them.

The Liberal government seemed close to overhauling mandatory minimum penalties last spring, after justice ministers from across the country gathered to tackle court backlogs.

Ottawa later pushed its own timeline back to last fall and then, late last month, introduced its massive Bill C-75, which is aimed at improving the criminal justice system, but is silent on mandatory minimums.

That appeared to be the final straw for Pate, who said she plans to introduce her private member’s bill within the next month, barring any signs the Liberal government will change its course.

“What we want to be able to do is advance sentencing reforms that will stand the test of time,” Wilson-Raybould said March 29 as she explained the absence, but also noted she would be watching what is happening to the Conservative-era sentencing provisions in courts around the country.

There is quite a bit of activity to monitor.

The Justice Department, which has been tracking charter challenges to the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, said that as of Monday, 68 per cent of 256 court challenges are related to mandatory minimum penalties. Eightynine of those relate to child sexual offences, 44 are for drug offences and 30 have to do with firearms.

Carissima Mathen, a University of Ottawa law professor, said the commitment to repeal or reform at least some mandatory minimum penalties could be putting Wilson-Raybould, in her role as attorney general of Canada, in an uncomfortable position as federal lawyers defend what she plans to change.

“I find for them to vigorously defend mandatory minimums would be odd given what they’ve said about their concern that mandatory minimums inappropriately interfere with judicial discretion,” said Mathen.

“I’m very intrigued to know what they are going to do.”

Jonathan Rudin, program director at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, said he does not think the wait-and-see approach is working, or fair to those who are currently facing charges associated with mandatory minimum sentences the courts could strike down or the Liberals revise. “This isn’t justice. It’s roulette.”