Mr. Speaker, Bill C-338 proposes to amend the Criminal Code to specify that street racing must be deemed to be an aggravating factor when a court is sentencing an offender in relation to four offences. These offences are: criminal negligence causing death; criminal negligence causing bodily harm; dangerous driving causing death; and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
Currently when performing the very difficult task of setting the appropriate and proper sentence, the courts must take into account the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the offence and the circumstances of the offender. This is the law. Where the Crown or the defence or both believe that the sentence is not appropriate, each may appeal from the sentence.
For the many offences in the Criminal Code, there will be widely varying circumstances under which each offence might be committed.
Mitigating and aggravating factual circumstances, including any street racing, are already placed before a sentencing judge. Unless there is some compelling reason to specify that certain circumstances are aggravating, it is better not to multiply the instances where the Criminal Code spells out that a particular way of committing the offence will be an aggravating factor. In my view, we are not seeing any such reason emerging from decisions of the trial courts and the appeal courts with regard to the four offences when street racing is a part of the circumstances of these offences.
Bill C-338 is not proposing to alter the periods of imprisonment available to the courts for the four offences. I am in agreement that the available periods of imprisonment for these offences are already very serious.
The Criminal Code makes it an offence to cause death by criminal negligence. This is a very serious offence, which could be committed, for example, when driving a motor vehicle in a street race.
The crown prosecutor is required to prove that the accused's behaviour showed a “wanton and careless disregard for the lives or safety of others”, and that this behaviour caused the death. The maximum penalty for causing death is a period of life imprisonment. This is equal to the maximum penalty for manslaughter and the maximum penalty for impaired driving causing death.
For dangerous driving that causes death, the crown prosecutor is required to prove that the driving which caused the death was dangerous to the public, having regard to all the circumstances, including the nature, condition and use of the place at which the motor vehicle was being operated and the amount of traffic that at the time was or might have been expected to be at that place. It is easier for the crown prosecutor to prove the elements of the dangerous driving offence than the elements for the offence of criminal negligence causing death. The maximum penalty for dangerous driving causing death is 14 years' imprisonment.
The maximum penalties for the offences of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and dangerous driving causing bodily harm are the same as the maximum penalty for impaired driving causing bodily harm. All are set at 10 years' imprisonment.
Without going into detail, I would simply observe that Bill C-338 would replace the discretion a court now has to impose a driving prohibition order, which would start after any period of imprisonment had been served with a mandatory order of driving prohibition.
I think there is logic to the present law, which gives the court discretion on whether to impose a driving prohibition order. If a court imposes a long period of imprisonment, the court may believe that there is no need to have the offender prohibited from driving at the point of release from imprisonment, which will be far in the future. In such cases, the offender will have been off the streets and away from the wheel for a very long time.
Also, I note that Bill C-338 proposes to put the street racing factor alongside the impaired driving provisions in section 255.1. Even if the bill were advisable, which I do not believe it is, the provision would more logically be placed within a new section 221.1, criminal negligence, and within a new section 249(5), dangerous driving.
In closing, I will say that unless we have a strong indication that the courts are not treating street racing as an aggravating factor for these four offences, restraint ought to be exercised in specifying that street racing become an aggravating factor.