Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has said that, were he to form government, he would impose
harsh imprisonment for fentanyl trafficking, including mandatory life sentences for major dealers. This is a laudable idea, even if his proposed legal mechanism for enacting these reforms is questionable.
We shouldn't have to invoke the Charter to set fentanyl-trafficking minimums
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Earlier this month, Poilievre proposed that traffickers caught with 20-mg or more of fentanyl be given 15 years in prison, while those caught with 40-mg or more be given mandatory life sentences of 25 years without the chance of parole.
He compared selling illicit fentanyl to
mass murder, and
suggested that his proposed sentencing reforms would invoke Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects the right to life, liberty and security of the person. He
told reporters two weeks ago: “Here’s how I interpret the Charter: that law-abiding people have the right to expect their children will not die in back alleys.”
Excluding his Charter argument, this approach makes sense. Although Canada’s
fentanyl crisis has, to some extent, been a
symptom of global forces beyond our control, our unsettlingly
lax criminal justice system in general has greatly exacerbated the problem. Under the status quo, fentanyl traffickers are regularly given light sentences that are scandalously disproportionate to their crimes, and are let out on bail
far too quickly and easily.
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In some cases, the federal government made fentanyl trafficking easier. This was epitomized by its
support of B.C.’s
disastrous drug decriminalization experiment, which permitted individuals to legally carry 2.5 grams (enough fentanyl to kill over 1,000 people) as well the
passage of Bill C-75 in 2022, which eliminated certain minimum punishments for drug-related offenses and allowed greater use of conditional sentences for simple possession.
The federal government does not micromanage sentencing lengths for drug crimes, and gives judges wide latitude to determine sentences based on a complex milieu of factors, including federal and provincial jurisprudence.
Over the past decade,some judges throughout Canada have
embraced a soft-hearted approach to sentencing. Not only are criminals given scandalously light punishments if they
come from marginalized backgrounds, drug trafficking can be treated so
unseriously that one wonders if any real accountability exists for traffickers at all.
In B.C., the sentencing range for first time street-level trafficking is now typically
18-36 months, which, according to
Pivot Legal Society (a drug-friendly human rights organization), is among the harshest sentencing ranges for low-level fentanyl trafficking in Canada.
Meanwhile, a 2021 Supreme Court of Canada ruling
R v. Parranto mentions a starting range of eight to fifteen years for those who oversee wholesale fentanyl trafficking operations, even though such individuals help move enough of the opioid to kill, at the very least, hundreds of thousands of Canadians (1kg of fentanyl, a moderate wholesale volume, contains 500,000 lethal doses). The case does, however, point out that starting ranges are non-binding, meaning these sentences can be decreased or increased based on a judges’ discretion concerning an individual’s circumstances.
Some prosecutors, particularly in Ontario, have tried to impose harsher punishments on fentanyl traffickers by
charging them with manslaughter, which can add a few extra years of jail time. However, this solution is rarely used, and limited to low-level traffickers, because establishing a causal link between a particular transaction and death is exceedingly difficult.
torontosun.com
They weren’t worried about licenses when they were selling the drugs, but this’ll instill fear in their hearts.