Justice Minister Committed to Repealing Minimum Sentences, Says Will Lower Canada’s Indigenous Imprisonment

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 16, 2022. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)

Justice Minister David Lametti says the Liberal government’s Bill C-5 will reverse the disproportionately high rate of indigenous imprisonment in Canada.

Lametti told The Globe and Mail he expects the incarceration rate to fall once the government implements the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and passes Bill C-5.

Introduced by Lametti last December, Bill C-5 seeks to repeal 20 mandatory minimum sentences (MMS), mostly for drug offences and certain gun crimes, by proposing amendments to the Criminal Code and Controlled Drug and Substances Act.

MMS are penalties that judges impose of a specific type and minimum length, extent, or severity to offenders convicted for certain criminal offences, including drug trafficking, murder, possessing a certain gun, and sexual offences, according to the Department of Justice’s website.

The department said in December 2021 that the reasons for making changes to the MMS are due to indigenous people being “disproportionately” imprisoned.

Lametti told the Globe that Bill C-5 would remove mandatory minimums on a number of simple-possession drug offences, and its reintroduction of conditional sentences for certain crimes would reduce indigenous incarceration rates.

Conditional sentences allow offenders to serve their time outside of prison under strict jail-like conditions, commonly known as “house arrest.”

Lametti’s approach stands in contrast to that of former prime minister Stephen Harper, who in 2015 committed to keeping mandatory minimum sentencing in place.

“We think it is important that those who traffic drugs, who destroy lives, face sufficient penalty under the law,” Harper said in September 2015.

Bill C-5, which passed second reading on March 31, is up for debate at the committee before it heads back to the House of Commons for third reading.

Lammetti’s Department of Justice says it’s committed to creating an action plan for the government’s implementation of UNDRIP, which seeks to “affirm minimum standards” to protect indigenous rights.