Just a quick post to note that Justice Pierre Dalphond of the Québec Court of Appeal has granted the federal government’s application for leave to appeal the Superior Court’s decision granting the Québec Bar standing to challenge, wholesale, the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions enacted by Parliament as part of an omnibus criminal law statute, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, S.C. 2012 c. 1. Justice Dalphond’s ruling is very brief, stating only that allowing the appeal to go forward is “in the interests of the justice system.”
I blogged about the Superior Court’s decision here, arguing that it was not a persuasive one. In my original post on the Bar’s challenge, I expected it to be dismissed for lack of standing; perhaps the Court of Appeal will yet prove me right. For the reasons I elaborated in my previous posts, I believe that the Bar’s recourse is inappropriate and inconsistent with the nature of judicial review in Canada. The hearing of the appeal is set for December 4.
