Victims of crime and their advocates are
applauding legislation, which limits the amount of pretrial time a convict is
credited with against his or her prison sentence.
Monday, Mach1,
Bill C-25, also referred to as the Truth in Sentencing Act, came into force. It
restricts the amount of credit a convict can be given off of his or her prison
sentence for time spent in detention leading up to sentencing. The bill states
credit can only be given on a one-to-one ratio, or on a one-and-a-half time
basis, provided judges explain their reasoning to the court.
“To me this is one of the things that
perpetuates the harm when you have these two-for-one or three-for-one deals
that were given to convicted criminals,” said Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Tony
Clement, referring to those who, for example, spend three months in pretrial
detention and once sentenced are given six or nine months off their prison
term.
While some maintain additional credit is
given due to the overcrowding of pretrial detention centres and lengthy
wait-times, Clement said the new sentencing regime should help alleviate those
issues.
He said pretrial detention centres are a
provincial mandate and provincial attorneys general are supporting the new
legislation. That is because it will help ease overcrowding and system backlog
when defence counsels realize stalling can no longer be used as a tactic to get
less prison time.
“Defence counsel, knowing full well that
their client would get two-for-one or three-for-one (credit for time served),
always stretched out that period of remand,” he said, adding the credit
restrictions will also help give those who have been victims of crime some
closure.
Dawn Novak, the mother of Bracebridge
native Natalie Novak, who was murdered in 2006 by a former boyfriend, said she
agrees with the legislation.
“We had a very long wait for things to
come to trial, much of it was due to the accused firing lawyers - pulling what
everyone felt to be very obvious tactics to delay the court date,” said Novak.
Natalie’s killer Arssei Hindessa was
sentenced last year.
“We had three postponements for our
particular case and each one was due to the perpetrator,” said Novak who called
it an immense expense to the Crown and referred to the tactics as intentional
game playing by the accused.
“We had very strong feelings about that,
that he would be rewarded, when it was all said and done, for this kind of
behaviour. There’s just too much of that going on.”
Huntsville councillor Fran Coleman, who
is an advocate for victims’ rights through her involvement with the Canadian
Crime Victims Foundation, agrees.
“It’s clearly a move in the right
direction,” said Coleman. “I know it is something the victims of crime and the
community have certainly asked about for a lot of years and basically truth in
sentencing: If it’s three years, then it’s three years and you shouldn’t get
additional credit,” she said.