Canada’s Supreme Court getting tough on crime! Although it blames the Liberals’ law as it was written by them.
Their law, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which came into effect on April Fool’s Day in 2003, was described as such (hope you are fluent in “liberal”) :
“The youth criminal justice system is to prevent crime by addressing the circumstances underlying a young person’s offending behaviour, rehabilitate young persons who commit offences and reintegrate them back into society, and ensure that a young person is subject to meaningful consequences for his or her offences, in order to promote the long-term protection of the public.”
Day in jail enough for youth guilty of manslaughter, says top court
OTTAWA (CP) – The Supreme Court of Canada, in a judgment sure to spark political controversy, has refused to boost the sentence of one day in jail for a Winnipeg teenager who beat a man to death with a billiard ball wrapped in a sock.
In a 7-0 ruling Thursday, the court said the Youth Criminal Justice Act, as currently written, doesn’t allow for increasing a sentence just to send a get-tough message to the public.
Reaction from the Conservative government was swift – but was aimed at the previous Liberal administration rather than the judiciary.
“I’m not casting any blame here on the Supreme Court of Canada,” said Justice Minister Vic Toews. “It is a very badly drafted act.”
The Tories promised in the last election to toughen the law to make it easier to sentence youths convicted of serious crimes under adult rules.
[…] The case arose from a 2001 incident in which an aboriginal youth, who was 15 at the time and cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish refugee from Iraq. […]
In a story on the state-run media back in the day, Vic Toews, then Canadian Alliance Party’s justice critic was referrenced:
Critics of the new act insist there are still problems.
Canadian Alliance Justice Critic Vic Toews says he’s offended by the special clause that singles out native youth, calling it one more flaw in an overall bad law.
“I don’t think as Canadians we can accept a law that tells judges you have to look at the colour of a person’s skin. I find that objectionable,” said Toews.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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