Justice Minister Changes Stance on Mandatory Sentencing

OTTAWA – Prince Edward-Hastings MP Daryl Kramp criticized Justice Minister Irwin Cotler today after he altered his position on mandatory minimum sentences.

“For nearly a year the Justice Minister has argued against my private members bill calling for the implementation of mandatory minimum sentences on indictable gun offences,” Kramp said. “Yet today he expounded the virtues of these very sentences. He has clearly changed his position in the face of the violence in Toronto.”

As recently as August 11th, Minister Cotler claimed that “research shows mandatory minimums don’t serve as a deterrent and actually have the opposite effect.” His Parliamentary Secretary, Paul Macklin, argued during the debate on C-215 that “mandatory sentences promote an all or nothing approach, which does not serve our criminal justice system.”

Yet today Cotler emerged from a meeting with Toronto Mayor David Miller stating that “there are more mandatory sentences with respect to gun-related crimes than almost any other genre of crimes in the Criminal Code.”

“The Justice Minister appears to be thoroughly confused on this issue,” Kramp noted. “He now appears to embrace mandatory minimum sentences simply because of the increase in gun violence over the past few months. Canadians will not be fooled by this government’s inaction on crime.”

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