12 September 2007

Music to my ears

In a stunning blow in the battle to eradicate the pervasive, deleterious, long-term effects of the Liberal Party's "catch and release" judicial system, the Ontario Court of Appeal yesterday slammed on the brakes and turned the Big Pink bus around...
Judges cannot undercut mandatory minimum sentences by showing leniency to accused people who lived under virtual house arrest awaiting their trials, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled 3-2 yesterday.

In an important test case presided over by a special five-judge panel, the majority said that reducing sentences by taking bail conditions into account would flout the will of Parliament.
It's way past time to stop the "revolving door" system of justice that releases predators back into the community before the victims have a chance to catch their breath. Court of Appeal... I salute you.

"Put bluntly, bail is not jail," Mr. Justice James MacPherson wrote on behalf of Madam Justice Eleanore Cronk and Madam Justice Eileen Gillese.

"Parliament has the clear jurisdiction to establish minimum sentences," the majority agreed. "Judges may not like such sentences because they are perceived as harsh or because they reduce judicial discretion in the sentencing process. However, that is the effect of mandatory minimum sentences which, by definition, remove much of the discretion that sentencing judges otherwise possess."
Onwards and upwards, my friends.

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