Canadian Lawyer

38 A U G U S T 2 0 1 5 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m on crime T hree weeks after the Supreme Court of Canada spring ruling that mandatory minimums for illegal handgun possession were unconstitutional, a young man in Toron- to was sentenced to three years in prison for that offence. The sentence was the same length as the previous mini- mum. Landrell Beals had no prior criminal record, a high school education, and the support of his family. In handing down the sentence, the trial judge made clear that what the Supreme Court did not do in R. v. Nur was send any message that gun crimes are to be treated any less seriously. "That court and the Ontario Court of Appeal have both recognized that a significant peniten- tiary sentence is appropriate for those offenders who fall at the 'true crime' end of the spectrum," wrote Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein. "It is hard to see how possession of a loaded prohibited firearm, even for a first offender who comes before the court with pro-social attributes, can attract anything less than a significant penitentiary sentence," Goldstein added. The conclusion that only in the rarest of circumstances will a court deviate from a minimum level of punishment that was previously mandatory, was the message Goldstein took from the SCC decision. And his statements on gun crime are not unusual within the judiciary, especially in southern Ontario. In the daily media the Nur decision was portrayed as yet another example of the Supreme Court actively thwarting the wishes of the government of Stephen Harper and his tough-on-crime agenda. "Supreme Court guns down good law" was the headline of a Globe and Mail editorial. A report in Postmedia News (now the largest newspaper chain in Canada) stated that a Despite how it may seem, the Supreme Court has issued several decisions over the last decade that have come down on the side of the state in the balancing act between law enforcement and individual rights. tough By Shannon Kari

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