Read on Twitter
I now know the contents of the bill. Firearms and drug MMS have been repealed and there are some new diversion guidelines for drug offences. Short version: this is good (better than we have had in a loooong time) but beware back-patting here... https://twitter.com/CBCOttawa/status/1362426716426297347
Let's start with the repeal of *some* MMS. This is a good thing. It will save court time, allow for more conditional sentences, and restore judicial discretion. Many of these sentences have previously been found unconstitutional.
These MMS are relatively low hanging fruit, and may not change too much, and it took years, and there are LOTS of minimum sentences still in the Code - but @DavidLametti should be give credit for this modest start. It is politically hard to removed firearm MMS. GOOD!
The diversion stuff is less good. It's not bad, it's just meh. The criminal justice system is still the go to approach for dealing with addition, nothing is mandatory here, there will still be criminal charges, there will still be LOTS of harm, and not much will change.
So on balance, this better than we have had in a long time. But be careful, this is not a fix for opioid crisis - it is a small improvement to bad drug policy. And it will do little to address the impacts of systemic racism (and could make it worse in the diversion context).
Now it is time to unpack this bill and see how wrong my hot take is....
I will also add here that the modifications to 741.2 (expanding the availability of conditional sentences) is very very very good. @DavidLametti should be given lots of credit of this. LOTS and LOTS.
Here is a link to the bill, please tell me all the reasons my take is correct and all the reasons I am out to lunch: https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/bill/C-22/first-reading
