LILLEY: Supreme Court makes adult sentence near impossible for young perps
Ruling rewrites law passed by Parliament on how and when adult sentences can and should be handed out to young offenders.
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A young man, just months from his 18th birthday, stabbed and killed another young man while trying to get a gun to further his criminal career. Canada’s Supreme Court just overturned the adult sentence handed down to this thug and changed how adult sentences are given to young offenders.
In a 7-2 split decision, the Court decided to rewrite the law passed by Parliament detailing how and when adult sentences should be handed down.
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LILLEY: Supreme Court makes adult sentence near impossible for young perps Back to video
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Appoint Liberal judges, get Liberal decisions.
The case revolves around a young man identified in the judgment only as I.M. In January 2011, I.M. and at least three other men approached a 17 year-old identified only as S.T. while he was shoveling snow outside his family home.
They attacked S.T., stabbing and striking him repeatedly and leaving him to bleed out with 12 stab wounds and 10 blunt force injuries. They then burst into the home, where according to the Ontario Appeals Court, they attacked the victim’s mother.
“The first man to enter hit S.T.’s mother in the head twice with a gun. The second man to enter punched her and forced her to sit on a chair in an interior porch with her head between her knees. The men left the home when the victim’s father and brother arrived,” the 2023 ruling said.
Three men, over the age of 18 were arrested in May of 2011 and convicted for the murder of S.T. Shawn Cargioli was convicted of first degree murder while Kendal Kamal and Famien Morrisson were convicted of second degree murder in 2015.
I.M. wasn’t arrested until November 2013 because he fled the country one week after the murder.
In the time between the murder and leaving the country, he boasted about his role in the murder to a friend and showed off his bloodied clothing. He also continued to try and obtain a gun, which was the original goal of attempting to rob S.T. In fact, text messages presented at trial showed I.M. initiated the planned attack on S.T. for the purpose of stealing a gun from him.
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After being arrested, I.M. was convicted of “constructive first degree murder.” He was 17 years and five months old at the time of the murder, but given his behaviour before and after the attack, was deemed to have shown the moral culpability of an adult and given a sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years.
If this isn’t a case for a young offender being given an adult sentence then I don’t know what is, but the fools on the Supreme Court see it differently.
Parliament’s language, as presented in the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is clear on when an adult sentence can be given.
“The youth justice court shall order that an adult sentence be imposed if it is satisfied that…” reads the law. The text then goes on to say that “the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness or culpability of the young person is rebutted” and that a youth sentence would not hold the convicted person accountable.
The Supreme Court has decided that “satisfied” is not a good enough test and that they will rewrite this section of law.
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They have now stated that rather than the court be “satisfied” that the crown has shown that the young offender is morally culpable for their acts.
“The Crown must rebut the statutory presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness beyond a reasonable doubt,” Justice Nicholas Kasirer wrote for the majority.
He went on to make claims that to not do things this way would violate the Charter. Sadly, this Trudeau appointee just made it harder to lock up violent criminals like I.M. because he decided to invent new law.
“In the case of I.M., and with respect for other views, I conclude that the Crown has not shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness has been rebutted at the first threshold,” Justice Kasirer wrote.
Plotting an attack that leads to a murder, boasting about your role in the murder to a friend, showing off the bloodied clothes from the murder, continuing your pursuit of an illegal gun and then fleeing the country is nothing to Justice Kasirer apparently. His ruling amounts to his attempt to impose his will on this idea on the whole country via judicial fiat.
This argument over how and when an adult sentence can be given to a young offender has been going on for years and the side Justice Kasirer supports has been losing, so he changed the law with the stroke of his judicial pen.
As Justice Suzanne Côté pointed out in her dissenting opinion, Parliament has considered and rejected the idea that reduced moral culpability must be rebutted beyond a reasonable doubt several times but has ultimately rejected the idea.
“The record makes plain that Parliament expressly considered — and even studied — the possibility of imposing proof beyond a reasonable doubt but ultimately opted against it. It was not a mere omission. It was a legislative choice that should be considered and respected, not dismissed nor discounted,” she wrote.
Justice Côté and Parliament should be listened to on this matter.
This majority ruling is an example of the Supreme Court looking at what Parliament has given them and deciding that they know better and will rewrite the law.
It’s yet another example of the judges in red robes bringing the administration of justice into disrepute by imposing their personal political views onto the country via a flawed court judgment.
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