Advocates welcoming the ruling say the case highlights the need to strike down dozens of mandatory minimums that remain in place despite contradicting Supreme Court guidelines for sentencing Indigenous offenders. The mandatory minimum penalty of two years in prison would have violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Justice Casey Hill determined. “The examination of mandatory minimum penalties is included in this review (and) that work is ongoing,” she said in a statement. In some cases, the time it would take to go through the process of challenging the minimum sentence is longer than the sentence itself, he said. There were 29 offences carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment as of 2015, according to the Department of Justice, and several more that carry mandatory minimum punishments that do not include prison time.

Source: National Post February 22, 2018 17:15 UTC