What Is A Mandatory Minimum?

For some criminal offences, there is a mandatory minimum sentence that is prescribed by law. This means that if a person is found guilty and is convicted of the offence for which a mandatory minimum is prescribed, the mandatory minimum sentence will apply automatically. In other words, the person who will be sentenced will at least be sentenced to whatever mandatory minimum sentence is prescribed by law and depending on the facts of the case, the sentence could be harsher. But the sentence will not be lower than the mandatory minimum sentence prescribed.

Impaired Driving

In impaired driving cases for example, a person who is convicted for impaired driving for the first time will have to pay a fine in the amount of at least $1,000. This is prescribed by s. 255(1)(a)(i) of the Criminal Code of Canada. The fine may be higher than the mandatory minimum sentence but it cannot be less than $1,000. Once convicted, that mandatory minimum sentence applies automatically. There is no way around it.

Other Offences

Mandatory minimum sentences are not just prescribed in the context of impaired driving. There are other offences that carry with them mandatory minimum sentences and some of these offences are found in statutes other than the Criminal Code , such as the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Challenging Mandatory Minimums

For the past few years, defence lawyers have been challenging mandatory minimum sentences as unconstitutional on the basis of constituting cruel and unusual punishment. The logic behind this argument is that mandatory minimum sentences constitute cruel punishment because regardless of the facts of the case and regardless of the severity of the crime people convicted of an offence will be sentenced to a specific sentence even if in their particular case that sentence is too harsh. So for example, to take the case of impaired driving, if you are convicted for the first time in your life for impaired driving and you do not have a criminal record and your readings were above the legal limit but not much higher, you will still have to pay a fine of $1,000 at least, whether or not you can pay the fine, just like another driver who was convicted for the first time and who had much higher readings and who can afford to pay the fine.

The Ontario Court of Appeal released a sentence appeal decision today on the issue of mandatory minimum sentences in the context of a drug case. The case is R . v. Vu , 2018 ONCA 436. You can find the decision on the following link: http://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions_index/new_releases.htm