B.C. provincial court Judge Joseph Galati has struck down today one of the key pieces of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's tough-on-crime agenda, the one-year mandatory minimum sentence for drug traffickers previously convicted of the crime within the last 10 years.
It's the second major setback for Harper's get-tough agenda. In November, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down three-year mandatory minimum sentences for possession of a loaded prohibited gun, declaring the law, part of the federal Conservatives' 2008 omnibus bill, unconstitutional.
This latest case involves small-time Vancouver Downtown Eastside drug dealer Joseph Ryan Lloyd, whom the judge had earlier convicted of three counts of trafficking two grams of crack cocaine, six grams of methamphetamine and a half gram of heroin.
Under the new law, Galati had to sentence Lloyd to a minimum one year in jail. Instead, taking into account time served, he sentenced Lloyd to 191 days.
Court documents show Lloyd, who is 25-years-old with a Grade 10 education, had 21 prior convictions that included fraud, forgery, theft, assault, possession of a prohibited weapon and a prior drug conviction.
