History of Law Reforms in Canada
Author | Loree Armstrong Beniuk, Jo-Anne Hughes, and Jack Reynolds |
Pages | 87-98 |
87
History of Law Reforms in Canada
Following the accused’s guilty plea to oences of sexual interference with a young
child and attempted extortion of the child’s mother, the sentencing judge imposed
a six-year sentence for sexual interference and a concurrent six-year sentence for
attempted extortion. . . .
e Court of Appeal found that the sentencing judge had erred in principle by
applying the [minimum sentencing] starting point, which presumed the existence
of a trust relationship, when the sentencing judge had found that there was none.
e Court of Appeal conducted a fresh analysis and reduced the sentence to four and
one-half years’ incarceration . . . .
e Crown appealed to the Supreme Court [which then restored] the sentence
imposed by the sentencing judge for sexual interference.
— Case Alert from R v Friesen, 2020 SCC 8 (38300) (8 April 2020)
In this chapter we provide a brief history of law reforms in Canada relating
to sexual offences against children. The criminal justice system in Canada
comprises three major agencies: the police, the courts, and the correctional
system. Each is guided by criminal law, which has four main sources: the
Canadian Constitution, including the CanadianCharter of Rights and Free-
doms;1 statutes, which include the Criminal Code;2 caselaw (which requires
the judiciary to follow previous decisions in similar cases); and administra-
tive law (laws wrien and enforced by regulatory agencies given that power
by government).
The power to enact statute law in Canada is divided among the fed-
eral government (Parliament), the provinces, and the municipalities. Only
eleven
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