No guns, please…

June 2, 2022

CTV News – Jim Bronskill, Canadian Press
National handgun freeze key feature of new firearm-control bill

The Trudeau government has introduced new gun control legislation that puts the focus on the importation of handguns, long thought to be mostly from the US, and smuggled across the border.  The new legislation limits long rifle magazines to five bullets, red flags mental illness, domestic violence, or criminal charges; the legislation will not collect handguns from current owners but supervises the private sale of handguns and adds resources for enforcement at the border.  “The number of registered handguns in Canada increased by 71 per cent between 2010 and 2020, reaching approximately 1.1 million, according to federal statistics. Handguns were the most serious weapon present in the majority of firearm-related violent crimes between 2009 and 2020.”  Over 1500 different types of assault rifles are already banned in Canada. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino presented the bill, C-21, in the House of Commons Monday.   https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/national-handgun-freeze-key-feature-of-new-firearm-control-bill-1.5923922   Related article: Axios – Justin Trudeau introduces strict gun control on handguns in Canada  https://www.axios.com/2022/05/30/justin-trudeau-gun-control-handguns-canada   Related article: CBC News – Richard Raycraft  Government tables bill to limit handguns, pledges to buy back assault-style weapons –  Legislation stops short of full handgun ban but sets hard limit on number in Canada  https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/handguns-liberal-bill-1.6470554

Toronto Star Editorial Board (May 30, 2022)
Reflexively linking violence with mental illness hurts victims of both – ‘We don’t see the absurdity of reflexively associating mental illness and violence. And until we do, we do a disservice to survivors of both.’

In the light of the frequency of mass shootings in the US and the usual delight in simplistic solutions to the causes, this editorial is a timely reminder to us that link between mental health and those killings can sometimes do a disservice for both victims and the mental health community.  “Yet the assumption that mental illness is always inextricably linked to violence comes at a high price, particularly for the one in five Canadians who will experience mental health problems during their lifetime.”  https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2022/05/30/reflexively-linking-violence-with-mental-illness-hurts-victims-of-both.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a08&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=404CAADEF7EB839FC77B1B04F0C251E1&utm_campaign=top_126496

Globe and Mail – Lisa Kerr
The Supreme Court’s ruling to end the death-in-prison penalty isn’t about the offender – it’s about our own moral code

Kerr is an assistant professor of law at Queen’s.  This opinion piece is a smart place to go to elevate the conversation about the life without parole controversy from the level of revenge at any price and the moral relationship and human rights between all people.  “There are many kinds of punishment that are unacceptable in contemporary Canada. The legal test, according to the Supreme Court, is whether a penal method is “intrinsically incompatible with human dignity.” Consider the obvious examples of lobotomy, castration, capital punishment and indefinite solitary confinement. These penalties are clearly beyond the pale, no matter the offence and no matter the offender. The Court has now held that a penalty of death-in-prison – imprisonment without a realistic hope of review – is similarly “degrading and dehumanizing.” Such a punishment must be “excluded from the arsenal of sanctions available to the state.”  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-supreme-courts-ruling-to-end-the-death-in-prison-penalty-isnt/

CBC Radio – The Current
Indigenous communities ‘expecting more’ from Pope’s visit, says Gov. Gen. Mary Simon – Pope expected to reiterate apology in July, but First Nations groups hope for compensation, action

While many Indigenous people were pleased to hear the Pope would visit Canada over the summer, the various players have begun to wonder what will be different about the visit compared to the Rome exchanges.  Canada’s Governor General thinks there needs to be more than just repeated the apology and thinks that action is now needed on a variety of still unresolved issues such as “the qualified apology did not address the issue of compensation, document disclosure or the extradition and prosecution of those known to have participated in abuse.”  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-may-30-2022-1.6468174/indigenous-communities-expecting-more-from-pope-s-visit-says-gov-gen-mary-simon-1.6468178

Globe and Mail – Andrew Coyne
We can no more force a prisoner to serve 150 years than we can execute him six times

At first pass the thought may appear ridiculous.  No one would ever live to serve 150 years.  While advocating for proportionality in sentences – the punishment must fit the crime – Coyne  misses the notion that long sentences are ineffective anyway.  He is right to suggest that the possibility of rehabilitation is always a core principle of sentencing.  But he is certainly correct that the notion that life means life, prison without possibility of release ever, is outside the intent of common law and should be outside the justice system as a punishment that is unacceptable.  “The principle that every person, no matter how grave his crimes, must be presumed to have the potential for redemption, even if that potential is never realized, is the same principle that allows him to be found guilty in the first place. To say a prisoner is capable of being rehabilitated – of choosing to do right – is to say that he is also capable of choosing to do wrong. Both are assertions of moral agency, and therefore moral responsibility.”  Coyne may be more interested in the Conservative leadership threat to invoke the not-withstanding clause.  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-we-can-no-more-force-a-prisoner-to-serve-150-years-than-we-can-execute/

Toronto Star – Betsy Powell
 ‘A miscarriage of justice’: Ontario murder conviction tossed over prosecutor’s close friendship with trial judge – “It is difficult to imagine how the ‘reasonable and right minded person’ would dispel the spectre of bias where the trial judge shares drinks and a meal with the prosecution team minutes after the jury entered a conviction,” the Court of Appeal ruled.

Defense lawyers James Lockyer and Gabriel Gross-Stein appealed the second degree murder conviction of Andrew Cowan on the grounds of a friendship and socializing between the prosecutor and the presiding judge immediately after the jury delivered a guilty verdict.  Justice James MacPherson wrote the opinion of the three judge appeal panel:  “Whether the trial judge was actually biased or not is not the issue…The mere appearance of bias is enough to satisfy the test. In this case, it is difficult to imagine how the ‘reasonable and right-minded person’ would dispel the spectre of bias where the trial judge shares drinks and a meal with the prosecution team minutes after the jury entered a conviction on a very serious criminal charge.”  Cowan will likely be retried. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/06/01/a-miscarriage-of-justice-ontario-murder-conviction-tossed-over-prosecutors-close-friendship-with-trial-judge.html