Bill C-269 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (sentencing) and to make consequential amendments to another Act

This enactment amends the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to eliminate minimum penalties for certain offences. It also makes consequential amendments to the Criminal Records Act.

Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Justice System

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, I completely agree with my hon. colleague and neighbour from Nanaimo—Ladysmith that we need to move to remove mandatory minimums from our criminal justice legislation. Almost two years ago I introduced a private member's bill, Bill C-269. It was a lot of work actually to cull all the individual mandatory minimums that had been brought in under the Harper era and put them in one private member's bill to make it easy to get rid of all of them, except for those for the most serious of crimes where we would not want to remove them.

I also note that the situation on Vancouver Island for indigenous women is particularly egregious. I want to offer my colleague the opportunity to speak to the lack of remand centres for indigenous women on Vancouver Island, and the additional specific discriminatory treatment that they face due to this lack of facilities. I ask if she would like to comment further on the systemic discrimination in criminal justice, particularly as it applies to us locally on Vancouver Island.

Criminal Code

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

, seconded by the member for Joliette, moved for leave to introduce Bill C-269, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (sentencing) and to make consequential amendments to another Act.

She said: Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present my private member's bill. It is very lengthy and detailed, but let me summarize its purpose.

Its purpose is to remove the use of mandatory minimum sentences for most criminal offences. They remain in place for murder and high treason, but we do now have, and we had at the time that many mandatory minimum provisions were brought into this place, adequate and in fact overwhelming evidence that mandatory minimum sentences do not reduce the crime rate. They result in overcrowding of our prisons, additional costs to the provinces, for which the federal government is not compensating, and in fact increase the likelihood that people who would otherwise be leading useful lives are placed in prison for longer than they normally would be. It removes judicial discretion, which may also lead to plea bargains and which takes decisions out of the hands of judges.

In the process of this private member's bill we can debate this issue, but it is also my hope that the government and the Minister of Justice will see fit to bring these provisions in more expeditiously than a private member's bill can.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)