Mandatory Minimums and Lawyers’ Ethics

By Alice Woolley

Statute commented on: Safe Streets and Communities Act, Bill C-10, 60-61 Elizabeth II, Assented to March 13, 2012

Exerpt:

[U]nder the newly enacted Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, numerous offences under the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46 and under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, RSC 1995, c 19, are now subject to mandatory minimums when they weren’t before. This raises the question of whether Canadian prosecutors and defence lawyers will be subject to the sort of ethical dangers that have arguably plagued their American counterparts to a greater extent than when relatively fewer Criminal Code offences attracted mandatory minimums.

You can find Alice Woolley’s full discussion in ABlawg if you click HERE.