A Game Changer? R. v. Sharma 2020 ONCA 478

By a 2:1 margin the Ontario Court of Appeal have struck down legislation which prevented drug traffickers from receiving house arrest as an alternative sentence to jail. See  https://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2020/2020ONCA0478.pdf.

I anticipate, that because there was one judge who disagreed with this law change the Crown will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. While this law was struck down because it discriminated unfairly against Aboriginals, the effect of the ruling means that non-Aboriginals will benefit too.  This decision only applies in Ontario but it sets up a framework for challenging the legislation in the rest of Canada.

Why is this case a game changer? Well if it remains law, and that is a big “if”, it means that those who traffic in drugs only minimally (say to support a habit) or who have other exceptional circumstances, such as in the Sharma case, will avoid actual jail.

Furthermore, it opens the door, and gives those who have been caught with trafficking in more than minimal amounts, a chance to begin genuine rehabilitation in hopes of convincing a court not to sentence them to jail proper. A person who is charged with trafficking, knowing that jail in unavoidable, will not have the same incentive to turn their lives around as someone who believes jail can be avoided.