Justice Minister David Lametti says his government’s Bill C-5 will reverse the rate of indigenous imprisonment in Canada.
Lametti told The Globe and Mail he expects the incarceration rate to fall once the federal 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.
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