Justice committee  Well, no, they're prevented from committing certain crimes, but it's interesting to look at: do lengthy periods of incarceration lead to less recidivism—

Justice committee  It's not really, is it?

Justice committee  It's not semantics. They're not being deterred from reoffending; they're being prevented from reoffending. There's a very big difference between the two.

Justice committee  I usually say “tomahto”, actually.

Justice committee  I'm open to being convinced, though. I just haven't seen anything. I haven't been presented with that yet—

Justice committee  No, they wouldn't.

Justice committee  Yes. Obviously the intent of this legislation is to apply when the victim of the kidnapping is under the age of 16. It would be illogical for it to apply to the accused person, because of course mandatory minimum sentences don't have any applicability under the YCJA. Interestin

Justice committee  That would accord with the information and the studies that I've seen, and also my experience with my own client base and with the criminal justice system in general. Most people who interact with the justice system are interacting because they don't have very good foresight. The

Justice committee  Yes. Quite simply, a number written down in a book, or as the U.S. does, on a sentencing chart.... It's very easy sometimes to be a defence lawyer in the U.S., because you do the checklists on the chart and it gives you a range. It doesn't represent the reality of what we all kno

Justice committee  They've chosen different numbers, but that's precisely the point, isn't it? It's a number that's just been chosen and it doesn't accord with the principles of our system. Regardless of what that number is, whether that number was one year or 10 years, why not? The point is that i

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  But isn't that the point? When we look at studies in the United States that say that a 20-year minimum sentence doesn't deter, that's very applicable. If a 20-year minimum sentence doesn't deter, where is the evidence that a 5-year minimum sentence will deter? It's very easy t

Justice committee  Yes. I mean, these are factors that we often look at. There can be many factors that operate on an individual accused that fall short of fitness issues or criminal responsibility issues but inform the level of responsibility of that offender. Apart from the offender himself, we c

Justice committee  Yes. There's the difference between what happens in the public perception...and there are also some interesting studies on what informs the public perception of what happens in our justice system. The public may think certain results are unwanted or undesirable, but when properly

Justice committee  Yes. It puts the cart before the horse, or reverses it. It's certainly the CCLA's position that one should start from a principled and evidence-based policy, which the public, if educated about, would support.