SCOC strikes down mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes

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OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – The Supreme Court of Canada has punched another hole in the Conservative government’s tough on crime agenda.

The high court has struck down the law requiring mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes, ruling that it is unconstitutional.

News1130 legal analyst Michael Shapray says the justices had to determine if the sentencing requirement made the law “cruel and unusual.”

“In this case, they found that there were reasonable circumstances that once could perceive happening where that type of sentence would be cruel and unusual. It’s on that basis that the court was able to come to its conclusion and strike down the law,” he tells us.

The ruling said the mandatory minimum sentence could ensnare people with “little or no moral fault” and who pose “little or no danger to the public.”

Shapray calls it a significant ruling and says it could have a major effect on other cases already in the system.

“This government has imposed a number of mandatory minimum sentences. This decision provides a framework for challenge to those other provisions. I think it’s going to result in some other provisions of the Criminal Code being struck down over the next few years.”

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote for the majority that there is a “cavernous disconnect” between the severity of the licensing-type offence and the mandatory minimum three-year prison term.

The court was deciding on two appeals involving mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes brought by provincial and federal attorneys general.

The appeal court struck down both the three-year mandatory minimum for a first offence of possessing a loaded prohibited gun, as well as the five-year minimum for a second offence.

The Ontario and federal governments wanted the Supreme Court to reverse the decision, arguing that the minimums do not breach the charter protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The new sentencing rules were enacted in 2008 as part of a sweeping omnibus bill introduced by the federal Conservatives.

The two governments argued the move was an effort to combat a serious danger posed by the proliferation of handgun possession cases.

But the high court said the five-year minimum goes far beyond what is required to protect the public, express moral condemnation and deter other gun crime.

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