Canadian Supreme Court Flexible on Mandatory Minimum Sentences

By Sarah Harding

Every once in awhile a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada will catch my eye if it tends to buck legal trends on both sides of the border. This past week, in a remarkable 9-0 ruling, the Canadian Court decided in R. v. Nasogaluak that mandatory minimum sentences may be ignored in cases where there is a “particularly egregious form of misconduct by state agents in relation to the offence and to the offender” even if there is no related Charter of Rights (Canada’s Bill of Rights) violation. The decision by Mr. Justice Louis LeBel endorses a more flexible view of sentencing that marks a bit of a retreat from the Court’s more rigid approach to mandatory minimum sentences in R. v. Ferguson decided in 2007.