Canada - Judge strikes mandatory minimum sentence for drug importation

[S.J.B.]

Judge strikes mandatory minimum sentence in drug case involving Indigenous woman
Peter Goffin
National Post
February 22nd, 2018

An Ontario judge has struck down a mandatory minimum sentence for a drug smuggling offence, ruling that two years in prison would be a ?grossly disproportionate? punishment for an Indigenous single mother who ran away from home at age 13.

Advocates welcoming the ruling say the case highlights the need to strike down dozens of mandatory minimums that remain in place despite contradicting Supreme Court guidelines for sentencing Indigenous offenders.

Cheyenne Sharma, a 23-year-old single mother living in poverty at the time of her crime, was sentenced to 17 months in jail after pleading guilty to bringing under two kilograms of cocaine into Canada from Surinam in the lining of her suitcase.

The mandatory minimum penalty of two years in prison would have violated Canada?s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Justice Casey Hill determined.

?Reasonable and right-thinking Canadians fully informed of the offender?s particular circumstances and the nature of the sentencing function including the unique history of the Aboriginal peoples (would) conclude that such a sentence would outrage standards of decency,? Hill wrote in his decision.

Read the full story here.

Here is the provision of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that has been struck down:

6 (1) Except as authorized under the regulations, no person shall import into Canada or export from Canada a substance included in Schedule I, II, III, IV, V or VI.

...

(3) Every person who contravenes subsection (1) or (2) ... (a.1) if the subject matter of the offence is a substance included in Schedule I in an amount that is more than one kilogram, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of two years...

 

[Jabberwocky]

Nice I cannot wait for the day mandatory minimums are a thing of the past. The US has a hell of a lot more work to do on this front, and it looks like we'll be going backwards for at least a few more years while the current administration fucks things up.