Justice committee  It's very common. In France, for example, there are several minimum sentences with the possibility of exemptions in exceptional circumstances. If you read the Supreme Court decisions in R. v. Nur and R. v. Lloyd, you will see that the Court sent very clear signals in favour of

Justice committee  I think you can ask for the bill to be reconsidered and to add items, in any event. For now, there are two aspects that need to be considered. First, there has to be a determination of what can be done concerning the sentences targeted in this bill. For some offences, the bill

Justice committee  My answer will have three parts. First, the problems raised by Ms. Samson are truly matters of concern. Those problems worry me a lot. I think that as elected representatives, you have to take them on. What I'm saying is that reducing minimum sentences isn't going to solve the p

Justice committee  Conditional sentences were created in 1996 in the hope of emptying prisons of inmates who had received short sentences. No one ever questioned imprisonment for serious crimes that were dangerous to public safety. That was never part of the discussions at the upper levels of the g

Justice committee  Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee. It is a pleasure to address you today. My name is Julie Desrosiers. I am a professor of criminal law at Université Laval. I specialize in penology, that is, in sentencing. I have written a lot