‘Mischaracterizing’

Dear Editor:

RE: ‘Impartial justice,’ April 23.

A recent letter in this paper, published under a name I share, raised concerns about Justice Skarica’s sentencing remarks in the Boss Omeire case. I am not the author of that letter and I write to correct a factual error it contains.

Justice Skarica’s concern that courts sometimes reduce sentences for non-citizens to prevent deportation, at the expense of victims is legitimate and shared by other sitting judges. I have no quarrel with that part of the letter.

What I do take issue with is the letter’s treatment of section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code. That provision is not a general “discount” for people with disadvantaged backgrounds. It is a specific Parliamentary remedy enacted in 1996 and upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada for the severe over-incarceration of Indigenous peoples, who at the time made up 18% of Canada’s prison population while representing only 3% of its general population. It applies to Indigenous Canadians, not to foreign nationals or undocumented persons.

Supporting victim-centred sentencing and re-evaluating deportation-avoidance leniency is fair game. Mischaracterizing a remedy for anti-Indigenous systemic racism as the same problem is not. 

I did not write that conflation, and I do not agree with it.

Mike Lee,
Elora