This Drug Dealer Is Fighting Canada’s ‘Cruel’ Mandatory Minimum Sentences

A drug dealer from Vancouver's crime-ridden Downtown Eastside neighborhood is taking his fight against Canada's mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drug offences to the country's top court on Wednesday.

In 2013, Joseph Lloyd was convicted of possessing small amounts of heroin, crystal meth, and crack cocaine for the purpose trafficking. He was addicted to the substances at the time and says he dealt them to support his habit. Because of the mandatory minimum sentencing laws implemented under the previous federal Conservative government in 2012, Lloyd, a repeat drug offender, would automatically be sentenced to a minimum of one year in jail. The Conservatives argued such tough-on-crime measures were necessary to prevent these offences and keep the streets safe. There are now more than 50 offences that carry mandatory minimum sentences.

However, the provincial judge at the time refused to impose the minimum sentence because it didn't allow the court discretion to weigh Lloyd's circumstances against the crime, and would be "abhorrent or intolerable." The BC Court of Appeal overturned the lower court's decision.

Now, in the first mandatory minimum sentencing challenge since the new Liberal government came to power, Lloyd's legal team will tell the Supreme Court in Ottawa that mandatory minimum sentences should be overturned because they breach the Charter rights of Lloyd, and others like him, and amount to cruel and usual punishment.

"A judge should be able to apply sentences based on what's fair and just, not based on what Parliament says," David Fai, Lloyd's lawyer, told VICE News. He said Lloyd was unavailable for comment. "This case shows one of the many ways a one-size-fits-all approach to sentencing doesn't take the offender's context into consideration."

Related: Here's How We Can Actually Reduce the Number of People in Prison

Fai added mandatory minimum sentences, particularly ones for possession for trafficking purpose disproportionately target people with mental illnesses, women, indigenous people, and people who deal drugs to sustain their addictions.

Lloyd, now 26, is a long-time drug addict with a lengthy criminal record, including 21 previous criminal convictions. He lived in Vancouver's east end, known for rampant poverty and high levels of crime and drug use.

Adrienne Smith, health and drug policy lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, one intervenor in the case supporting Lloyd, said that these vulnerable offenders, mandatory minimums violate the charter because they can result in sentences that are "grossly disproportionate." Further, Lloyd's case should be viewed as a health issue.

"If you look at the historical case law, similar offenders would have much lighter sentences," she said. This could include serving their time in the community, or in a program to address any drug addictions, as well as culturally appropriate sentencing measures for indigenous offenders. "There should be tailored sentencing for every offence."

Smith added that while Canada was implementing new mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes, governments in the United States were looking to scale back similar laws because of the harm they caused to communities. Earlier in 2015, President Barack Obama called for an end to mandatory minimum prison sentences for non-violent drug offences, as well as other overhauls to prisons in America.

A 2014 report from Canada's auditor general warned that prisons in Canada were becoming overcrowded due to the harsher and longer jail terms, despite the fact that overall crime rates in the country are the lowest they've been in decades.

Last year on the campaign trail, Justin Trudeau said he would look into repealing select mandatory minimum sentencing provisions.

"It's the kind of political ploy that makes everyone feel good, saying, 'we're going to be touch on these people,' but by removing judicial discretion, and by emphasizing mandatory minimums, you're actually clogging up our jails … and not necessarily making our communities any safer," Trudeau told Global News in September.

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Photo via Flickr Creative Commons user Matthijs