Good move on bad law

As part of their “tough on crime” agenda, the Harper Conservatives forced judges to impose mandatory victim surcharges on people who had absolutely no ability to pay them.

They claimed it would create accountability and help pay for victim services, but it never did any of that. What it did was act as an unending punishment that undermined other principles of the justice system such as proportionality and rehabilitation.

It’s welcome then, that the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the law on Friday, declaring it cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional.

When someone who is homeless, addicted and mentally ill, with a yearly income of $4,800, is ordered to pay $1,400 in surcharges, it’s an unpayable burden. Those fines, and the threat of arrest, collection agencies and the inability to apply for a pardon that came with them, served to further crush marginalized people.

The Trudeau government has known for years that mandatory surcharges were unjust. It could and should have fixed this law itself instead of acting so slowly that the Supreme Court got there first. And because of that things get more complicated now.

The court ruling struck down victim surcharges entirely, not just the mandatory portion. Now everyone, including those who can afford to pay, are off the hook, and the government has a bill before the Senate proposing to return judicial discretion for something that no longer exists in law.

That’s a mess of their own making that the government will have to sort out in the coming weeks.

Those fines further crushed marginalized people