Defending his government’s bill to remove mandatory minimum sentences before a Senate committee, Attorney General and Justice Minister David Lametti said individuals in dire financial circumstances who are arrested for dealing small amounts of illegal drugs shouldn’t be incarcerated.
Testifying before the Senate legal committee on Sept. 21, Lametti said that minimum mandatory penalties were having a “negative impact” on black and indigenous communities.
“You couldn’t have a conditional sentence order for an indigenous mother who was caught in very low level of trafficking in order to put bread on the table,” Lametti said, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter. “That’s the kind of social problem that needs to be attacked at its root and we’re trying to do that here.”…