It is rare in criminal law to see a 9-0 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.
That court issued such a criminal ruling recently regarding parole eligibility criteria for multiple murder convicts. The essentially ruled against “stacking” so that there was no real effect on parole from multiple murders, as compared to a single murder.
Expect two things from this:
- Lawyers will use this to argue for other related things, like lower sentences if pre-trial custody has been particularly onerous.
- If a Conservative government gets elected federally, expect them to use the “not withstanding” clause in the Charter of Rights to get around this decision.
We are in for interesting times.