Prohibition of conditional sentences as constitutional by the Supreme Court

The ruling overturns the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal It was declared unconstitutional in July 2020 Act passed in 2012 By Stephen Harper’s Conservative government It prohibits a judge from granting a suspended sentence for certain crimes with a maximum sentence of more than 10 years in prison.

Conditional imprisonment, introduced in 1996, allows an offender who meets the necessary conditions to serve the sentence outside prison walls under strict conditions established by the court. But in 2012, the federal government restricted the eligibility criteria based on the severity of the crimes committed.

In the case, lawyers for Saujin Nation mother Cheyenne Sharma of Ojibway descent — who was sentenced to 17 months in prison in 2018 for trying to smuggle nearly two kilograms of cocaine into the country — argued that the 2012 Criminal Code was a departure. It was inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms because of its impact on Aboriginal offenders.

According to Ms. Sharma and her supporters, her sentence violates the principles of the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1999 decision R.C. Gladue, which sets out the factors courts must consider when sentencing Aboriginal offenders.

Banning conditional sentences for certain crimes, in their view, would conflict with the principles of restorative justice practiced among First Nations, and would deprive the courts of justice. An important means of addressing systemic discrimination against indigenous peoplesThe Ontario Court of Appeal said.

No breach of charter

However, in its decision handed down on Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the ban on conditional sentences, which it said did not limit Ms Sharma’s rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

According to the Supreme Court of the country, Mrs. Sharma It fails to demonstrate that the impugned provisions create or contribute to a disproportionate effect on Indigenous offenders compared to non-Indigenous offenders..

The Court also held that these provisions of the Criminal Code are reinforcing Continuity of the regime of conditional sentences by providing imprisonment as the usual punishment for certain offenses and categories of serious offences..

Cheyenne Sharma, who was arrested in 2015 for trying to smuggle nearly two kilograms of cocaine into the country from South America, was sentenced to 17 months in prison in February 2018 by Ontario Superior Court Judge Casey Hill.

The mother of one girl pleaded guilty, explaining that she agreed to give the drug to her boyfriend in exchange for $20,000 to avoid being evicted from her shelter because of her desperate financial situation.

Ms Sharma, who challenged the criminal law provision that carries a minimum sentence of two years, won her case, but the judge rejected her challenge to the conditional sentence provision.

The woman appealed the verdict and various activist groups intervened on her behalf. They argued that systemic discrimination based on gender, race, socioeconomic status, and colonialism shaped the experience of indigenous women.

Banning conditional sentences for Aboriginal offenders prevents judges from using them fully Claude principleThey begged.

The Court of Appeal agreed with them in July 2020 and overturned Ms Sharma’s prison sentence, saying a suspended sentence of 24 months a day would be appropriate in her case. Because he had already served a prison sentence at the time of sentencing, the appeals court condemned the time he had already spent behind bars.

The sentence originally imposed against Ms Sharma referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling, which was overturned by the Court of Appeal.