Collateral Consequences

• Author: Erin Winocur/Danielle Robitaille/Maya Borooah
• Pages: 337-364

337

Collateral

Consequences

With contributions by Chantal

Desloges, Cathryn Sawicki,

Alex Smith, Heather Hansen,

and Sophia Cripouris

9

I. Introduction ................................................. 

II. Covid- .................................................... 

III. Immigration ................................................. 

A. Impacts of Sentencing on Inadmissibility of Non-Canadian

Citizens ............................................... 

B. Impact of Sentencing on Appeals of Removal Orders for

Permanent Residents .................................... 

C. Impacts of Sentencing on Sponsorship of Foreign

Relatives .............................................. 

D. Impact of Sentencing on Applications for Canadian

Citizenship ............................................ 

E. Impact of Sentencing on Admissibility to the United States

ofAmerica............................................. 

IV. Family Law .................................................. 

A. Signicant Changes to the Children’s Law Reform Act and

Divorce Act ............................................ 

B. The New Tort of Family Violence ........................... 

C. The New Privacy Tort of Publicly Placing a Person in a False

Light.................................................. 

D. The Overlap Between the Criminal Justice System and the Family

Law System ............................................ 

E. Integrated Domestic Violence Court ........................ 

V. Civil Law .................................................... 

A. Potential Consequences as a Defendant ..................... 

B. Potential Consequences as a Plainti ....................... 

C. Limitation Periods....................................... 

D. Driving................................................ 

E. Employment and Professional Discipline .................... 

Copyright © 2024 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.

338Sentencing: Principles and Practice

I. Introduction

The impacts of a sentence on an oender beyond those specifically imposed by

the sentencing court are called collateral consequences and may be considered by the

sentencing judge in determining the appropriate sentence. Collateral consequences

“cannot be used to reduce a sentence to a point where the sentence becomes dispro-

portionate to the gravity of the oence or the moral blameworthiness of the oender.”1

A collateral consequence “includes any consequence arising from the commission

of an oence, the conviction for an oence or the sentence imposed for an oence,

that impacts the oender.”2 It may be foreseeable or naturally flowing from the con-

viction, sentence, or commission of the oence but does not need to be.3 The impact

of collateral consequences may vary significantly between otherwise similarly situated

oenders. For example, a sentence may have immigration consequences,4 or it may

result in “physical, emotional, social, or financial consequences.”5

Collateral consequences are neither aggravating nor mitigating factors, but they

are significant legally and practically.6 Legally, consideration of collateral conse-

quences flows from the principles of individualization and parity. “Like oenders

should be treated alike, and collateral consequences may mean that an oender is no

longer ‘like’ the others, rendering a given sentence unfit.”7 There is no rigid formula

prescribing how a court may take into account collateral consequences.8 However,

where the consequence is inevitable, such as an injury to the oender following a

driving oence, the impact on the sentence is likely to be minimal, as compared to a

situation where the injury was not foreseeable.9 To the extent the impact of collateral

consequences shapes an oender’s rehabilitative prospects, they may also be rel-

evant to that objective.10 Hinderances on a person’s ability to work or travel may

impede their reintegration into society.11 A court may consider loss of employment or

disciplinary sanctions in mitigation on sentence.12 It may also consider the conditions

1 R v Suter, 2018 SCC 34 at para 56.

2 Ibid at para 47.

3 Ibid at paras 47, 49.

4 R v Pham, 2013 SCC 15 at para 13.

5 Suter, supra note 1 at para 47.

6 Ibid at para 48; Pham,supra note 4 at para 11.

7 Suter, supra note 1 at para 48.

8 Ibid at para 47, citing Pham, supra note 4 at para 11; R v Bunn, 1997 CanLII 22728, 125 CCC

(3d) 570 at para 23 (Man CA); R v Bunn, 2000 SCC 9 at para 23 [Bunn (SCC)]; Tran v Canada

(Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2017 SCC 50 at 520 [Tran].

9 Suter, supra note 1 at para 50.

10Pham, supra note 4 at para 11.

11Ibid at para 12.

12R v McNish, 2021 ABCA 28 at para 14.

Copyright © 2024 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.