There are a number of systemic issues. We certainly have seen the mass incarceration of indigenous individuals and racialized individuals. There are a number of reasons for that with minimum sentences. Number one, it sometimes relies on prosecutorial discretion as to whether minimum sentences are followed through with or not. If you are a white, upper-class individual, you're much more likely to escape the minimum sentence by having the prosecution, in a non-reviewable, non-transparent situation, not proceed in that sentence.
We often see people induced to pleading guilty when there are minimum sentences. That often falls on those who can't afford lawyers and those who have more contact with the police. A lot of these minimum sentences, especially for drug offences, fall disproportionately on individuals who are in over-policed communities. It's not because those communities necessarily have more quote-unquote “criminals” in them. It's that the police are there. They're not in Rockcliffe or Rosedale looking for the same offences. It's for a number of those systemic reasons that minimum sentences operate in a systemically racist and discriminatory way.