Thank you, Mr. Merraro. I understand your message. There are indeed statistics that prove your point: many black and indigenous people are in our prisons. I don't question that. What I am questioning, however, is why things are the way they are.
First, you said that some communities are over-policed. Then you said that people no longer trust the system. Finally, you said you don't have enough resources and people are desperate.
All this makes me wonder whether this is not so much a problem with minimum sentences as a problem with social inclusion. Perhaps these people in trouble should be helped with special resources, perhaps even with sessions to help them learn about the police? I'm not a sociologist and I don't want to invent new ways of doing things, but I wonder if it would be possible to take more productive measures than just abolishing minimum sentences.
Even if we abolish minimum sentences, these people are still going to end up in prison if they commit crimes. Whether it's one year, four years or six months, they're not going to avoid it. Of course that's not what you want or what we want as a society.
To really tackle the problem, are there no solutions other than abolishing minimum sentences?