Justice committee  The Gladue report and the Ipeelee case are both based in part on the existence of certain provisions in the code. At section 718.2, it says that the courts have to take into account the circumstances involving an accused who is aboriginal. However, nowhere does it say that the go

Justice committee  In this case, we're talking about minimum terms of imprisonment. We're aware that the courts have a certain view of mandatory terms of imprisonment. I don't want to say we've had conflicting judgments, but we've had decisions that will give constitutional sanction to certain term

Justice committee  We assume that it does to the extent that organized crime is involved. Organized crime usually is not limited exclusively to one very specific activity, particularly in the area of contraband. Often the same contraband routes will be used to smuggle not just tobacco but also drug

Justice committee  The jurisprudence varies widely. I believe that the imposition of jail sentences has only recently become more frequent. Up until the last few years, the tendency was more to impose fines. However, often people did not pay their fines, because they did not necessarily have the mo

Justice committee  In this case, what is proposed by the bill puts us into unknown territory, because we don't know whether federal prosecutors will use the new offence or the former one. If they use the new offence, we don't know whether they will proceed by summary conviction or on indictment. T

Justice committee  In practical terms, it means that if there had not been a provision allowing for concurrent jurisdictions, only the provinces would be able to prosecute. So you would have either the RCMP or provincial law enforcement laying charges, but only the provinces would be prosecuting.

Justice committee  Quite possibly, but we felt it was as important for the Attorney General of Canada to be able to prosecute as well as allowing for the normal situation of the provinces to prosecute.

Justice committee  Well, yes, the drug offences, for instance. There's concurrent prosecution there. Our prosecution service prosecutes most of the drug offences, but in Quebec and in parts of New Brunswick, the provincial prosecution prosecutes drug offences. With certain Criminal Code offences, t

Justice committee  Essentially, it gives the opportunity for the prosecution to determine whether to prosecute using a process whereby a lesser penalty is available if one prosecutes by way of summary conviction. If the circumstances are serious enough then the prosecutor can choose to go by way of

Justice committee  First, it was important for us to have a fairly significant quantity of product to justify a minimum penalty and also to resist a charter challenge. It would have been problematic if someone were selling a single cigarette and was looking at a minimum of 90 days. The courts would

Justice committee  Are you talking about unstamped tobacco here?

Justice committee  Right, but the manufacturing of the unstamped tobacco, which is really the source of the problem this legislation is trying to get at, is largely being done in Canada, and it's not normally for export outside of Canada. It's for consumption within Canada. You have a situation whe

Justice committee  No, because under the Excise Act, there's a licensing regime that will give authorizations for people to—

Justice committee  That's correct. If you look at the legislation, subsections 30(2) and 32(2) of the Excise Act, 2001 provides a list of exemptions, so licensees, authorizations, and so on are exempted from the operation of this legislation.

Justice committee  Well, the courts have handed down mixed decisions in the case of mandatory sentences. It really is something that's almost case by case. You have to look at the minimums being imposed and the activities that risk attracting these kinds of minimums. In the Nur case we're talking a