Liberals’ criminal justice reform legislation panned
Bill seen by experts as a missed chance to tackle over-incarceration of Indigenous, Black people
By reviving their criminal justice reform bill Tuesday, the Liberals missed an opportunity to table stronger legislation tackling the over-incarceration of Black and Indigenous people, experts and critics say.
Bill C-5 would repeal mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offences and some firearm offences; expand the use of conditional sentences, such as house arrest, and require police and prosecutors to use their discretion to keep drug possession cases out of the courts.
Unlike its bill banning conversion therapy — which died in the previous Parliament but was brought back this session as a stronger bill — the government decided Tuesday to reintroduce a carbon copy of its criminal justice legislation that also died in the House in August when the election was called.
It was denounced as “soft on crime” by the Conservatives, while an NDP statement said it was “better than nothing.”
Justice Minister David Lametti repeatedly described the bill at a news conference Tuesday as an “important first step,” saying it will start to dismantle policies implemented by the previous Conservative government that have led to the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous people in the justice system.
“I think repealing some (mandatory minimum sentences) and not all is a missed opportunity to do what’s right for our most vulnerable populations,” said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a University of Toronto criminologist and special adviser to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Like other criminal justice and public health experts, Owusu-Bempah said the government should have gone further and repealed simple possession drug offences as an important way to combat the country’s opioid crisis. “The statements about dealing with racism and issues in the justice system facing Black and Indigenous people don’t quite square with the fact that the decriminalization piece didn’t go further,” OwusuBempah said.
Indigenous adults make up about 30 per cent of the prison population, but about five per cent of the Canadian population. Black adults represent three per cent of the Canadian population but slightly more than seven per cent of federal offenders.
Asked about the contrast between the reintroduced conversion therapy bill and the latest criminal justice bill, Lametti said the Liberals were doing exactly what they promised to do in their election platform.