The Return of Mandatory Minimums: C-16’s Charter Safety Valve and the Return of the Inflationary Floor
Parliament has put mandatory minimum penalties back at the center of Canadian sentencing policy after a decade of court decisions striking down minimums that produce grossly disproportionate outcomes. In the latest iteration, Bill C-16 keeps mandatory minimums in place for offences that carry a minimum term of imprisonment.[i] It also adds a Charter safety valve that lets judges go below the floor when the minimum would amount to cruel and unusual punishment for the offender
