Thank you very much, Mr. Wallace.
This amendment changes the wording in Bill C-35 in clause 2 from “shall” to “may”, as you see, and it adds the words:events, if the court considers it to be necessary for the proper administration of justice.
Why? This bill would introduce a mandatory consecutive sentence, a practice opposed by many experts in the legal field. Mandatory consecutive sentences are simply bad judicial policy, according to the Canadian Bar Association and others.
As the Canadian Bar Association has pointed out, judges are required anyway to abide by the general principle of proportionality in sentencing, an impossible task if they're also required to impose mandatory minimum sentences. The combination of mandatory minimums and mandatory consecutive sentences is particularly worrisome and seriously threatens judicial discretion.