This leads me, then, to a question that I know my colleague, Françoise Boivin, has been addressing. It is the decision of the Supreme Court in R. v. Wu, which held that “it is irrational to imprison an offender who does not have the capacity to pay on the basis that imprisonment will force him or her to pay”.
What would your response be to the idea that enforcement of non-payment by incarceration should be an available option only when a fine option program is in fact available?