The week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan:
The Supreme Court of Canada has found that making people ineligible to even apply for parole for 150 years is cruel and unusual punishment.
In 1967 Canada repealed the Criminal Code provisions that allowed people convicted of murder to be put to death by hanging, except in the case of on-duty police officers and prison guards. These last exceptions were finally repealed in 1976.
The death penalty provisions for murder were replaced by mandatory sentences of life in prison.
As life sentences for murder remain mandatory, the only issue for a judge to decide is the parole ineligibility period.
Being eligible to apply for parole does not mean that someone would be successful in getting parole. The primary issue when someone applies for parole is the safety of the community, and if a prisoner remains a danger, they may never actually receive parole. The ineligibility period simply means that a prisoner could not even ask for parole.
For second-degree murder, parole eligibility can be set at between 10 and 25 years. For first-degree murder, it is 25 years.
Several years ago, parliament amended the Criminal Code to permit consecutive 25-year parole ineligibility periods when someone is convicted of the first-degree murder of more than one person.
The Supreme Court of Canada concluded that prohibiting a prisoner from even applying for parole for longer than anyone might live is cruel and unusual punishment.
Similar decisions were reached in Germany, France, and Italy in previous court cases in those countries.
The Supreme Court of Canada concluded that a jail sentence with no possibility of release is degrading in nature and presumes that the offender is beyond redemption. To ensure respect for human dignity, Parliament must leave a door open for rehabilitation even in cases where the prospect of this is very low.
The court found that the objectives of denunciation and deterrence are not better served by the imposition of excessive sentences and that beyond and certain threshold, these objectives lose all their functional value, especially when the sentence far exceeds the human life expectancy.
Also, on the show, a series of class action cases involving fees charged to merchants for accepting payment by credit card is discussed.
The class action claims had been based on various arguments including Competition Act provisions, civil conspiracy to injure and unjust enrichment.
Ultimately, after more than a decade of work, a settlement was reached and approved by courts in the various Canadian jurisdictions that were involved.
$131 million is available for distribution to businesses that accepted credit card payments any time between March 23, 2001, and September 2, 2021.
To receive funds from the settlement a business needs to file a claim prior to September 30, 2022.
Claims can be filed online at: https://www.creditcardsettlements.ca
Follow this link for a transcript of the show and links to the cases discussed.