{"id":143329,"date":"2025-08-13T21:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T21:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/143329\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T21:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T21:01:09","slug":"conservatives-say-the-justice-system-favours-non-citizens-experts-disagree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/143329\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives say the justice system favours non-citizens. Experts disagree"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Conservatives want to change the Criminal Code to eliminate what they say is a double standard in the justice system that allows non-citizens to get lighter sentences than Canadians who have been convicted of the same crime.<\/p>\n

“When it comes to sentencing non-citizens, Canada has essentially adopted a form of two-tier justice,” Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said Wednesday in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

“This offends all principles of fairness that should be foundational to our justice system.”<\/p>\n

Deportations are automatically scheduled to allow time for appeal, but certain criminal sentences remove the right of the offender to challenge their removal.<\/p>\n

“Removing non-citizens convicted of serious crimes is a no-brainer,” Rempel Garner said. “Becoming a Canadian is a privilege, not a right.”<\/p>\n

But immigration experts say the Conservatives’\u00a0characterization of Canada’s justice system as being biased in favour of non-citizens is simply false. They say the law is designed to ensure the sentence fits the crime, regardless of the offender’s status.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH |\u00a0Conservatives want judges\u00a0to stop considering immigration status in sentencing:\u00a0<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

Conservatives vow to introduce bill preventing judges from weighing immigration status in sentencing<\/p>\n

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner says she’ll introduce legislation when Parliament returns that would amend the Criminal Code, preventing judges from considering a non-citizen’s immigration status during sentencing. <\/p>\n

Rempel Garner said her party will introduce a private member’s bill when the House of Commons returns in September, promising the change will “restore the value of Canadian citizenship.”<\/p>\n

The bill “will expressly outline that any potential impact of a sentence on the immigration status of a convicted non-citizen offender, or that of their family members, should not be taken into consideration,” the Conservative Party says in a statement.<\/p>\n

Rempel Garner’s suggestion that Canada has\u00a0“two-tier” sentencing provisions is, she said,\u00a0the direct result of a 2013 Supreme Court of Canada ruling<\/a> that clarified sentencing guidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of several factors to consider<\/p>\n

In the ruling, Canada’s top court said that when sentencing a non-citizen, a judge can use an offender’s immigration status as one of several factors when considering what sentence to impose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s what judges do in sentencing. They take into account factors that are individual that are relevant; this is just one more of them,” said Audrey Macklin, a law professor at the University of Toronto.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Macklin said other factors\u00a0commonly considered during sentencing are whether the offender has a substance abuse issue; whether they are a single parent and what will happen to their child; or the prospects that they can be rehabilitated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Sentencing always takes into account factors unique or specific to that individual,” she said. “It’s a misrepresentation to suggest that this is two-tier justice.”<\/p>\n

Macklin said the 2013 ruling also clarified that while immigration status can be considered, it could not be used to reduce the sentence below the standard minimum.<\/p>\n

Losing the right to appeal deportation<\/p>\n

Under the law in Canada, a person who has been ordered to be removed from the country cannot appeal their deportation order if:<\/p>\n