Justice committee  I think it's a pretty consistent finding in the research. Again, I think mandatory minimums are predicated on the idea of consistency and predictability, and it kind of breaks those mechanisms or at least challenges them in may ways. A pretty consistent finding is that there are

Justice committee  I apologize. I only caught the last bit. I didn't realize there was translation, so I'm very sorry, but I think I got the gist of your question. I hesitate to talk too much about the Canadian system, which I have read about but don't understand. I'm not an expert in it. In the

Justice committee  Absolutely. I think it's the word “mandatory”. It sounds like it will automatically happen: Everyone who commits a crime under mandatory minimums will be mandated to serve a certain penalty. That's precisely what the decades of research on mandatory minimums shows does not happen

Justice committee  Sure. For a lot of these penalties, research has been done on the varying lengths of time, from long sentences to shorter sentences. At the arrest level, if police feel that the penalty will be unjust and they don't want to do it, they just don't make the arrest. If it comes into

Justice committee  Yes, and no worries whatsoever; I'm happy just to listen. I've not seen anything quite like Bill C‑5. There has been some reconsideration at the federal level and throughout the country on a general obsession with mandatory minimums, but in the United States, they're still pret

Justice committee  That's based on the research. The biggest disconnect between research and evaluation and policy is probably in mandatory minimums, at least in the criminal justice system. That research is pretty clear. It's often not super-clear, and many times findings are mixed, but in terms o

Justice committee  Thank you very much. I want to thank you all for inviting me to appear before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to present testimony on Bill C-5. As you noted, I am the director of a task force on long sentences at the Council on Criminal Justice. The task force