Hi, everyone. It's nice to be back here before the committee on behalf of the CLA. I also have some experience appearing before this committee when a lot of the mandatory minimum sentences in a previous government were introduced, as well as restrictions to the conditional sentence regime.
I've been a criminal defence lawyer in Ottawa, eastern Ontario and Quebec for the last 14 years. I have seen the impact, as a trial lawyer, of mandatory minimum sentences on a practical as well as on a human level; the limits to conditional sentences; and, broadly speaking, the disastrous effects of the war on drugs, which is one of the greatest policy failures of our time.
I have three broad points to make on behalf of the CLA about Bill C-5. I understand that Minister Lametti presented this bill as three broad areas of reform—number one, dealing with mandatory minimum sentences; number two, dealing with conditional sentences; and number three, dealing with prosecution for simple possession. CLA is broadly supportive of the first two measures, because in fact what they do is they restore judicial discretion in sentencing on an individual level.
On a fundamental level, we have faith in the justice system to get it right. We have faith in the process. We have faith in judges to be able to hear the evidence as part of the adversarial system where the Crown marshals its best arguments and evidence and the defence does the same. The judge decides. The judge gives reasons. That judge is held responsible or accountable for their reasons through the appeal process. Mandatory minimum sentences, as well as conditional sentences, limit this and create one size fits all, which often creates injustice and has broad negative impacts.
So in terms of the first two areas of reform, we're broadly supportive of this, because it restores judicial discretion and would call for the repeal of other mandatory minimum sentences. It's important to note that just because a mandatory minimum sentence isn't available, it does not mean that a person is going to automatically be sentenced to no jail. A primary example of this can be seen in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in R. v. Nur, in which a mandatory minimum sentence for possession of a firearm in certain instances was struck down. It did not create this crisis in which all of a sudden people convicted of these offences were not getting jail sentences.
The second point I want to make is that as someone who is spending a lot of time in trial court, I can tell you that mandatory minimum sentences, as well as limits on conditional sentences, create delays in the justice system. They create delays because it makes people less likely to want to accept responsibility for what they have done and more likely to go to trial and consume valuable trial or court resources—and time, which is currently at a premium in our criminal justice system. We suffer from very significant delays in our criminal justice system. It impacts everyone, including victims of crime. Not having a conditional sentence available will often tip the scale in terms of whether a person decides to plead not guilty and have a trial, because they're going to lose their job if they're sentenced to jail.
It's important to note that the Crown and defence don't have to agree on whether or not a sentence of jail can be imposed. If a conditional sentence is available, an accused person can take a shot at it in terms of having their counsel argue as to why a conditional sentence should be imposed in this particular case. Part of what the court has to consider is whether or not a person is worthy of a less than two-year sentence—if it's two years or more, it's simply unavailable—and also whether or not if released on a conditional sentence they would be a risk to public safety.
Would they be able to follow those conditions? Can those conditions be enforced? If it can't be shown that they can, then a person will not receive a conditional sentence, but at least through the adversarial system an accused person can try to persuade the sentencing judge to give them a conditional sentence. That will lead to the resolution of more cases.
The last point with respect to simple possession is simply that the bill offers a great deal of discretion to police officers. It is my view that racialized and indigenous groups will not be benefiting from this, because they're already over-policed. This is not going to solve some of the problems that are seen in the war on drugs and with the over-incarceration of those groups.
I look forward to speaking to the members individually.