CRIME BILL 'A SLAP IN THE FACE' TO JUDGES, GOMERY SAYS

Says Tories' Plan For Mandatory Jail Terms Implies Jurists Don't Know
How To Sentence

Retired Quebec judge John Gomery says the Harper government's plan to
create mandatory minimum jail terms for drug crimes is a "slap in the
face" to judges and suggests the Conservatives don't trust them to
craft appropriate sentences for individual cases.

"This legislation basically shows a mistrust of the judiciary to
impose proper sentences when people come before them," says Mr.
Gomery, who came to national prominence in 2004 when he chaired an
inquiry into the sponsorship scandal.

"Judges view this kind of legislation as a slap in the face."

Most sitting judges are unwilling to publicly state their views on
the long list of law-and-order reforms now before Parliament. Calls
on the matter to the presidents of the Canadian Superior Courts
Judges Association and the Canadian Association of Provincial Court
Judges have gone unanswered.

But Mr. Gomery, who retired from the Quebec Superior Court following
the inquiry in 2006, says judges are unhappy about this and other
legislation that suggest a failure on their part to impose proper sentences.

"Judges find that it's an implied criticism when Parliament imposes
mandatory sentences," Mr. Gomery says. "It leaves the impression that
judges aren't using their discretion wisely or in accordance with the
wishes of the legislature. And judges are resentful about that."

Aside from murder, which has long carried a mandatory sentence of
life in prison, Canada's first widespread use of mandatory jail terms
came in 1995, when the former Liberal government imposed minimum
prison terms for a number of offences committed with a firearm.

The Harper government now wants to increase the length of those
mandatory terms through changes to the Firearms Act. It also wants to
create new mandatory jail terms for several drug offences.

Currently, anyone convicted of a possessing, producing or trafficking
illicit drugs receives a sentence chosen by a judge under a range of
options set out in federal law.

The Conservatives instead want to impose mandatory minimum jail terms
for a number of crimes, ranging from six months in prison for growing
and selling a single marijuana plant, to three years for growing
cocaine, heroin and other serious drugs.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has said he wants to send a message:
"If you sell or produce drugs, you pay with jail time."

While the Conservative proposals would allow judges to exempt certain
small-scale offenders from prison terms if they complete a
court-supervised drug treatment program, most other offenders would
automatically be sent to jail.

Mr. Gomery, who presided over criminal cases in Quebec for more than
20 years, says sentencing drug dealers is one of the toughest jobs of
any judge.

"All judges recognize that selling drugs, or producing marijuana in a
large grow-op, is a horrendous crime," he says.

"On the other hand, sometimes those crimes are committed by people
who have drifted into drug use to finance their habit. They start
selling drugs themselves and are really just a middleman for a much
more important drug dealer."

Mr. Gomery admits that mandatory sentences will relieve judges from
what he calls the "agonizing" task of choosing an appropriate sentence.

"Most judges who sit on criminal matters would say sentencing is the
hardest part of their job," he says. "But if Parliament has said,
'You've got to give this guy five years,' then you shrug your
shoulders and obey the law and sentence them, even if you feel it's
unnecessarily harsh.

"Still, my own personal view is that it's a mistake to take away
discretion from judges," says Mr. Gomery.

"In the last couple of decades, the U.S. has gone the way of
mandatory sentencing for a whole bunch of crimes and the result is
their prisons are jammed.

"I find it hard to understand how the richest country in the world
has one of -- if not the -- highest prison population in the world.
There's something wrong there, and the problem is mandatory
sentences. I'm disappointed to see Canada drifting in that direction."