Bill C\u002D5 would allow conditional sentencing for lesser crimes, to rebalance overrepresentation of minority populations in prisons
During an appearance at the House of Commons justice committee, Lametti said Bill C-5 targets offences where Indigenous and Black individuals are disproportionately represented. The bill would remove mandatory minimums for six offences in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and, in the Criminal Code, remove them for illegal selling of tobacco and for 13 firearms and weapons-related offences.
Lametti said that between 2007 and 2017, “Indigenous and Black adults were more likely than other Canadians to be admitted to federal custody for an offence punishable by an MMP ,” and such admissions “almost doubled during those years.”Article content The bill “will be effective in targeting systemic overrepresentation,” Lametti argued. He said MMPs are being abandoned in many states in the U.S., both Democratic and Republican, “because they simply do not work.”
Lametti responded that “what is in an affront is the continuation of a so-called tough-on-crime policy that has so clearly failed” in Canada, the U.S. and other countries, and that is “being abandoned everywhere.”Article content
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