TOP COURT UPHOLDS MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES

The Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of mandatory minimum sentences. In the midst of a custodial altercation with a prisoner he had arrested, Michael Ferguson, an Alberta Mountie, shot and killed his captive. Ferguson was subsequently convicted of manslaughter using a gun, an offence requiring a mandatory 4 year sentence.

At the Supreme Court, CCLA special counsel Andrew Lokan (of Paliare Roland) argued that mandatory minimum sentences amount to cruel and unusual punishment, and should be struck down. Alternatively, he argued that a constitutional exemption could be read into the provisions of the Criminal Code so as to allow for judicial discretion in exceptional circumstances. CCLA took no position with respect to the specific facts of the Ferguson case.

But the court found that Ferguson’s sentence was not “grossly disproportionate” and therefore was not cruel and unusual punishment. Despite holding that the Charter was not breached, the Court ruled that the remedy of a constitutional exemption was, in any event, not available.

CCLA will continue to oppose mandatory minimums on the basis that they can produce unfair outcomes, while doing little to deter crime. [R. v. Ferguson]