Liberal mandatory minimums bill doesn’t go far enough: Murray Sinclair

OTTAWA — The former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission says Liberal legislation to remove some mandatory minimum penalties from the Criminal Code doesn’t go far enough.

Murray Sinclair says Bill C-5 does not go nearly far enough to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous and Black people in the criminal justice system. 

He says the government has not provided data to justify a “piecemeal approach” that leaves two-thirds of mandatory minimum penalties in place. 

Sinclair made the comments this morning at a hearing of the Senate’s justice committee, which is studying the bill after the House of Commons passed it in June.