A retired Crown prosecutor says the devil will be in the details of new federal government plans to toughen sentences for repeat serious offenders and the introduction of bail reform legislation.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says changes to the Criminal Code will allow for consecutive sentences, and harsher penalties for certain violent crimes, but Mike Murray says harsher penalties will only work if minimum sentences are extended, not maximum sentences.
He says increasing the maximum sentencing isn’t going to do anything, because as he puts it, ‘nobody gets the maximum sentence.’
“For 100 years, the maximum sentence for breaking into someone’s house has been life in prison, but as far as I know, nobody’s ever gotten life in prison. The average sentence for breaking into somebody’s house, depending on your record, would be somewhere in the range of two to four years. So it’s not really going to make any difference at all.”
Murray says it’s important to remember that similar changes brought in by Stephen Harper’s government were almost all knocked down by the Supreme Court.
“For example, there was a mandatory minimum sentence for a drive-by shooting, there was a mandatory minimum sentence for internet child luring, for somebody with a record having a loaded prohibited weapon, for possession of hard drugs for the purpose of trafficking by a repeat offender. I mean, all of those minimum sentences have been struck down in the past.”
(Police on the scene of a homicide near Carter’s Hill)
RNCA says legislative changes ‘couldn’t come at a better time’
The RNCA says news of coming bail reform and tougher sentences for repeat offenders couldn’t have come at a better time.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Association says tougher bail and sentencing laws come as the result of years of “hard work” by Canadian Police Assocaitions and are a “step in the right direction.”
The RNCA say Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement came around the same time as RNC responded to three separate firearms offences and multiple arrests.
The association say of note is the fact that one of the people accused was wearing body armour and carrying a high-capacity rifle.
RNCA President, Staff-Sergeant Mike Summers says the news couldn’t come at a better time.
