MANDATORY JAIL TERMS PROPOSED FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS

Law Wrongheaded, Victoria Lawyer Says

The Conservative government unveiled historic legislation yesterday
to create the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people
convicted of trafficking illicit drugs.

The proposed changes are the newest chapter in the Harper
government's sweeping crackdown on crime, which includes bills before
Parliament to toughen rules for repeat violent offenders, to keep
accused young offenders in jail before their trials, and now to
impose automatic prison penalties on serious drug offenders.

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act currently contains no
mandatory prison sentences for anyone convicted under the act. Judges
use their own discretion about whether to send drug pushers and
growers to jail.

HOWEVER, THE NEW BILL PROPOSES:

- - A one-year mandatory jail term for dealing drugs while using a
weapon, or for dealing drugs in support of organized crime.

- - A two-year mandatory term for dealing cocaine, heroin or
methamphetamines to young people, or for dealing them near a school
or any place young people are known to frequent.

- - A mandatory six-month sentence for growing as little as one
marijuana plant, for the purposes of trafficking.

- - A two-year mandatory term for running a marijuana grow operation of
at least 500 plants;

- - A doubling of the maximum prison term for cannabis production from
seven to 14 years.

The Conservatives are also proposing to allow judges to exempt
certain offenders from mandatory prison terms, on condition that they
complete drug treatment court programs.

Drug treatment courts are designed to help non-violent offenders who
have trafficked in small amounts of drugs in order to support their
addictions overcome their drug habits.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the changes in the sentencing
provisions are designed to target the people the government considers
at the root of the drug supply problem: large-scale growers and
traffickers, organized crime groups that finance their operations
through drugs, and people who push drugs on children and teenagers.

Not everyone is convinced.

Sue Wishart, chairwoman of the criminal section of the Canadian Bar
Association Victoria branch, said social research shows prison
sentences do not rehabilitate drug offenders and do little to control
drug abuse.

But installing mandatory prison sentences is an easy out for a
government, goaded by a public rightfully concerned about
drug-related crime. "You can understand politically why they would do
this because the public have said 'We're getting tired of this
issue,' " Wishart said.

Mandatory minimum sentences take away judicial discretion to craft a
sentence for a particular offender, removing the individual from what
should remain a human process, she added.

Mandatory sentences will clog up the justice system, Wishart
predicted. With a mandatory sentence, offenders have no incentive to
plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Instead, they will
go to trial because they have nothing to lose.

Drug trials often involve lengthy legal arguments, based on the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, contesting the legality of a search
or seizure. "You would get more and more of these cases going to
trial if there is a mandatory minimum," Wishart said.

She also said if that if Ottawa were serious about fighting drug
crime, it would put money into policing and programs that deal with
drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness.