Counter-Rebellion: Judges of the Alberta Court of Appeal Question the Supreme Court's Jurisprudence on Mandatory Minimum Sentences

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"Last month the Alberta Court of Appeal issued an interesting decision that concerned the constitutionality of yet another mandatory minimum sentence, this one in section 244.2 of the Criminal Code... The mandatory minimum is four years’ imprisonment (or more if organized crime is involved). For fairly straightforward reasons given by Justice Antonio, R v Hills, 2020 ABCA 263, upholds the four-year mandatory minimum..."

But in separate concurring reasons Justices O’Ferrall and Wakeling go on to criticize the Supreme Court’s approach for dealing with such cases....

In this post, I summarize Justice Antonio’s lead opinion, as well as the common aspects of the two concurring ones, and explain why I think the Supreme Court is right and Justices O’Ferrall and Wakeling are wrong about section 12."


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