Ontario’s high court says anti-black racism must be confronted, mitigated and erased, but has refused to establish a framework to account for it in sentencing.
The Ontario Court of Appeal was asked to consider the matter in the appeal of the sentence imposed on a 26-year-old man for carrying a loaded firearm.
Kevin Morris was sentenced to 15 months, but the Crown appealed, saying it was “grossly inappropriate.”
The sentencing judge had taken into account the disadvantages and systemic racism against blacks that Morris had faced growing up in Toronto.
Some interveners on the appeal, including the Black Legal Action Center, called for a standardized framework for sentencing black people.
The Court of Appeals says in its decision today that courts must provide a “generous front door” to admit evidence about the effect of anti-black racism on an offender, but the specific sentencing framework for indigenous offenders does not apply. black criminals.
The court increased Morris’s sentence to two fewer years per day, but upheld the sentence, which means he will not have to serve any more time in jail.
Reference-toronto.citynews.ca