It's a broad question in some senses, because when you're talking about discretion under Bill C-10, there are a couple of things. First is the general issue of whether or not people believe judges are using appropriate discretion in dealing with sentencing issues. That's one of the things underlying some of the discussion we're having here about Bill C-10, and certainly about the push to implement mandatory minimums.
What we have to think about first when we're talking about judges' discretion is that they are experts to some extent in the field they're working in. They were appointed through a very good process in Canada in terms of the way we decide who our judges are going to be. So even though they are appointed, it's a very open and transparent process that is not as political as a politician choosing a particular person.
In terms of the actual use of that discretion, we have to realize judges' discretion covers a number of areas, as you've said, and particularly in sentencing you have to realize we're talking about mandatory minimums. But as some of my colleagues have said several times today, judges can always implement a range of sentences. The issue is whether or not we believe they're doing so appropriately and whether mandatory minimums will be the panacea to make sure they do so. From the information we have available, that doesn't happen, because what happens is the discretion judges have in terms of charging and determining sentences merely gets transferred to another player within the judicial system, whether it be the police or the prosecutors. What we have to think about first is that judges have the ability to give at least that mandatory minimum sentence, but they also have the ability to give a larger sentence.
What we have to be concerned about particularly for the African Canadian community, recognizing we have racism within our criminal justice system, is that any exercise of discretion should be done in an open and transparent manner. That's particularly important in sentencing because you have the ability to review sentences, to appeal them, to determine whether or not they are appropriate in any given circumstance. Unfortunately, when you have mandatory minimums that shift the judicial discretion to police and prosecutors, that process is no longer available, and that's particularly problematic for communities such as African Canadians, such as aboriginal communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of a discriminatory use of discretion within the criminal justice system.
So, yes, we want to make sure judges use their discretion appropriately, but we have to realize they have processes available to do that. They have minimum and maximum sentences they can impose. More importantly, it's important that whoever is exercising that discretion is doing so in an open and transparent way that can reviewed.