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Bill C-10: Safe Streets & Communities Act (Omnibus Crime Bill)
Increased Penalties for Serious Drug Crime"
Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Drug Offences
Bill C-10 in the House of Commons Sept. 20, 2011 - Transcript (Bill C-10 was introduced by Peter Van Loan) |
Bill C-10 in the Justice Committee Oct. 6, 2011 - Transcript - Video - Witness List |
Bill C-10 Omnibus Crime Bill ("Safe Streets & Communities Act") links:
• Government press release (September 20, 2011)
"GOVERNMENT OF CANADA INTRODUCES THE SAFE STREETS AND COMMUNITIES ACT"
• Text of Bill C-10: Controlled Drugs and Substances Act section
• Backgrounder - Safe Streets & Communities Act: Increased Penalties for Serious Drug Crime
(*includes the proposed sentencing chart)
Conservative government "mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes" legislation
Background information and timeline
With the introduction of Bill C-10 this will be the fourth time this mandatory minimums legislation has been introduced.
1. Bill C-26 (This bill died due to an federal election call in September 2008)
2. Bill C-15 (This bill passed Third Reading in both the House and the Senate, then died due to prorogation in December 2009.)
3. Bill S-10 (This bill died due to an election call, after the Conservative Cabinet was found in contempt of Parliament for not revealing the full costs of the crime bills)
4. Bill C-10 "Omnibus Crime Bill" (this legislation bundles the "mandatory minimums" legislation and eight other crime bills together into one bill)
Detailed timeline of this "mandatory minimums" legislation
39th Parliament, 2nd Session (Oct. 16, 2007 - Sept. 7, 2008)
1. Bill C-26
Progress: 
Last Stage Completed: Second Reading and Referral to Committee in the House of Commons (2008-04-16)
House of Commons
* Nov. 20, 2007: Introduction and First Reading
* Apr. 16, 2008: Second Reading and Referral to Committee
* Sept. 7, 2008: Parliament dissolved (Bill C-26 dies as a result of an election call)
* Oct 14, 2008: Federal Election #40
40th Parliament, 1st Session (Nov. 18, 2008 - Dec. 4, 2008)
* November 18, 2008: 40th Parliament first convenes
* December 1, 2008: Prime Minister Harper prorogues parliament within days of the Liberals and NDP signing an agreement on a proposed coalition government to replace the governing Conservatives.
40th Parliament, 2nd Session (Jan. 26, 2009 - Dec. 30, 2009)
* January 26, 2009: Parliament reconvenes for second session
2. Bill C-15
Progress: 
Last Stage Completed: Third Reading in the Senate (2009-12-14)
House of Commons
* Feb. 27, 2009: Introduction and First Reading in the House of Commons
* Mar. 27, 2009: Second Reading and Referral to Committee
(*The committee amended the bill by increasing the number of cannabis plants that would trigger a Mandatory Minimum Sentence from 1 plant to "more than 5".)
* June 8, 2009: Third Reading (passed by House)
Senate
* June 9, 2009: Introduction and First Reading in the Senate
* Sept. 17, 2009: Second Reading and Referral to Committee (*The Senate Committee amended the plant number that would trigger a mandatory sentence from "more than 5" to "more than 199" out of concerns that such a low threshold was not in keeping with legislation intended to target organized crime.
* Dec. 14, 2009: Third Reading (passed by Senate)
* Dec. 30, 2009: Prime Minister Harper prorogues Parliament until March 3, 2010, killing Bill C-15 in the process.
Question: If this is priority legislation to the Conservative Government, as they have stated, then why prorogue parliament when this bill was so close to passing?
40th Parliament, 3rd Session (March 3, 2010 - March 26, 2011)
*Bill S-10 was introduced in the Senate first, rather than the House of Commons.
3. Bill S-10
Progress: 
Last Stage Completed: First Reading in the House of Commons (2010-12-14)
With the introduction of Bill S-10 the plant count threshold for a mandatory sentence was set back to "more than 5."
Senate
* May 5, 2010: Introduction and First Reading in the Senate
* Sept. 29, 2010: Second Reading and Referral to Committee
* Dec 13, 2010: Third Reading in Senate (passed by Senate)
House of Commons
* Dec 14, 2010: Introduction and First Reading in the House of Commons
March 21, 2011: A House of Commons committee recommends that the Conservative government be found in contempt of parliament for not revealing the full costs of their proposed crime legislation.
That the House agree with the finding of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs that the government is in contempt of Parliament, which is unprecedented in Canadian parliamentary history, and consequently, the House has lost confidence in the government.
March 26, 2011: Governor General David Johnston agrees to dissolve the 40th Canadian Parliament
41st Parliament, 1st Session (June 2, 2011 - present)
4. Bill C-10 "Omnibus Crime Bill"
This legislation combines nine pieces of crime legislation that failed to pass in previous sessions of parliament, including former Bill S-10.
House of Commons
* Sept. 20, 2011: Introduction and First Reading
* Sept. 28, 2011: Second Reading and Referral to Committee
* Oct. 6, 2011: First meeting of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights
The Conservative government has a majority in the Senate because Stephen Harper appointed 38 Conservative senators since taking office in 2006. Senate appointments were justified by Stephen Harper as necessary to help pass his so-called "tough on crime" legislation. When Bill S-10 was introduced, the Conservative government opted to introduce it in the Senate first, instead of the House of Commons. Because parliament had been prorogued the Conservative government was able to form a new Senate Committee to study the legislation. This new Senate committee consisted of a majority of Conservative Senators.
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing in the News • June 17, 2011: States cut drug penalties as Canada toughens them After more than 20 years of the war on drugs, more than a dozen U.S. states are reducing penalties for many drug offences. The move away from mandatory minimum sentences without any chance of parole comes as states struggle to cover the costs of overcrowded prisons in the midst of tough economic times. Republicans and Democrats alike have also recognized weaknesses in their tough-on-crime, one-size-fits-all sentences. That's different from Canada, where the Conservative government has started toughening sentencing and imposing mandatory minimums for a number of crimes. • June 16, 2011: Call Off the Global Drug War By JIMMY CARTER Some of this increase has been caused by mandatory minimum sentencing and “three strikes you’re out” laws. But about three-quarters of new admissions to state prisons are for nonviolent crimes. And the single greatest cause of prison population growth has been the war on drugs, with the number of people incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses increasing more than twelvefold since 1980. Not only has this excessive punishment destroyed the lives of millions of young people and their families (disproportionately minorities), but it is wreaking havoc on state and local budgets. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pointed out that, in 1980, 10 percent of his state’s budget went to higher education and 3 percent to prisons; in 2010, almost 11 percent went to prisons and only 7.5 percent to higher education. • June 13, 2011: Mandatory Minimum Terms for Cannabis Cultivation: How Crazy are the Harper Conservatives? There is a very real sense in which we - or at least the Tories - are operating without a shred of science on our side. Why are they doing this? The costs of jailing marijuana cultivators will soar into the billions of dollars within a few years - and it will be the provinces, not the federal government, that will have to pay for the construction and operation of these new provincial facilities. Why have the provinces been so silent? Are they looking to create prison industries in rural areas of their jurisdictions, shoring up longstanding unemployment, and potentially converting these voters to their cause? Do they not care about the costs and the consequences of putting thousands of non-violent offenders in jail? Could this money not be better spent on health care, or other more useful collective endeavours? • June 2, 2011: Canada’s utterly failed drug policy [National Post editorial board] • June 2, 2011: War on drugs ‘a failure,’ international panel declares A high-powered panel of former heads of states and United Nations officials says it is time for governments to find new ways to deal with the world’s drug problem • May 21, 2011: Crime and punishment: Inside the Tories’ plan to overhaul the justice system Among the more controversial aspects of the bundle is mandatory minimum sentences. Minimum sentences are hardly new to the Criminal Code, and they are hardly partisan — the previous Liberal government imposed mandatory minimums on several child-exploitation offences. But the Conservative omnibus bill will dramatically expand them, limiting judicial discretion to levels unseen before. • May 14, 2011: Drug prohibition is dumb on crime Here in Canada, this thinking is the basis for proposed federal mandatory minimum sentencing legislation. Unfortunately, like archaic cultures that clung to the belief that the Earth was flat, those who support mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes are willfully ignorant of the near universal consensus that mandatory minimum sentences are both extremely costly and ineffective. • May 13, 2011: MP Blake Richards obediently champions Conservative "100 days" Omnibus crime bill Canadians have waited long enough for these measures. We promised during the election that a majority Conservative government would bundle and pass into law our outstanding and delayed justice bills within Parliament’s first 100 days and that is just what we intend to do.
This comprehensive legislation will include new measures that will: crack down on organized drug crime; <snip> MP Richards also uses his column to spread misinformation about opposition parties stalling Conservative crime bills in the past Many of our government’s bills faced co-ordinated obstruction by opposition parties who are apologists for criminals. • April 7, 2011: Conservative majority would hustle crime bills into law all at once Stephen Harper is promising a majority Conservative government would bundle all the law-and-order legislation it’s been trying pass into one omnibus bill and pass it within 100 days of taking power.
This omnibus bill would include Bill S-10, misleadingly referred to in the article as a legislation to, "Crack down on organized drug crime."
CONTEMPT OF PARLIAMENT |
