Hon. Bernadette Clement: Honourable senators, I join my colleagues in speaking today on Bill C-5, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

We have heard many excellent debates about this bill and on the topic of mandatory minimums and their effects on Canadians. But this is not just about mandatory minimums. This is about systemic racism.

It might surprise you to know that even though I’m a former mayor, a lawyer and now a senator, I am not beyond the reach of systemic racism. As I stand here addressing my peers, I want you to know that the privilege that we share does not shield me from the experience of racism.

No matter your path in life, you’re in the skin you’re in.

Now strip away my title as senator. Strip away my career. Strip away my health. Strip away my education, my supportive family and my friends. Let’s take a minute to think about that. If I experience racism, imagine the experience of someone who does not have the privilege that I do.

This is how systemic racism works. As a Black person, you are always subject to the fear, the risk and the reality that there are still injustices that not only exist but are reinforced in places like our legal system, institutions and democracy.

[Translation]

For Black Canadians and members of other racialized communities, mandatory minimum sentences do not start and end at the time of sentencing. Like other inequities in our justice system, these sentences can be traced back and are related to realities, experiences and injustices members of these communities face every day.

[English]

When we look for solutions for these systemic problems and for a clearer understanding of how they tie into issues like mandatory minimums, I am drawn to the writing of community advocates like the Black Legal Action Centre. They wrote in their co-brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights:

That the importance of Bill C-5, and the potential impact of their proposed changes to it cannot be separated from the systemic discrimination perpetuated by Canada’s criminal justice system against marginalized people in Canada, and in particular against Black and Indigenous women in Canada.

[Translation]

Even if they continue to look at the statistics on the overincarceration and overrepresentation of racialized people in our justice system, it is obvious that systemic discrimination based on race, sex and income is closely related to this issue.

[English]

This analysis of systemic inequities is also echoed in the testimony of Mr. Brandon Rolle, senior counsel of the African Nova Scotian Institute, who spoke at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

In his remarks, Mr. Rolle indicated that the disproportionate impact of mandatory minimums on custody rates for Black people is clearly outlined in the data, but we need to understand the context here.

First, there is a distinct overpolicing and oversurveillance of Black communities, which contributes to the likelihood of being arrested and charged, where Black Canadians are at a disproportionate risk of criminal liability for offences carrying a mandatory sentence.

Second, there is a disproportionate number of Black Canadians detained before trial, which places more significant pressure on them to plead guilty, including to crimes with mandatory minimum penalties.

Third, African Canadians have experienced a legacy of slavery, colonialism, segregation and racism that has led to this historic pattern of disadvantage, which includes overrepresentation in custody, involvement in certain offences, being denied bail and receiving longer jail sentences and subsequently serving harsher time while in custody.

Honourable senators, in understanding that systemic racism is the underlying cause of issues like the overincarceration of racialized people, and is inseparable from practices like mandatory minimums, I will return to the refrain you have heard time and time again.

Mandatory minimums do not work. They do not deter crime. They do not make our communities safer. They do not reduce recidivism and, most of all, they do not bring us toward a more equitable and just Canada for all Canadians. The Black community has been telling us this for decades, and the data reflects this too.

Canada’s federal correctional agency indicates that most Black Canadians accounted for 7.2% of federal offenders in 2018 and 2019, while comprising only 3.5% of Canada’s population. Nearly 1 out of every 15 young Black men in Ontario experiences jail time. That’s compared to 1 in about 70 young White men. These statistics are alarming and disheartening. But, as I have been saying, they only represent one part of the picture.

Mandatory minimums are not merely an issue that affects our numbers and percentages. They are also tools that distance our judicial system from seeing offenders as people with diverse circumstances, perspectives and lived experiences, and are disadvantaged under a racist and discriminatory system.

As I consider these factors and the substantive and data-based responses already outlined by my colleagues, I’m hesitant in my support of Bill C-5. Many advocates, legal professionals and Canadians have waited for so long to finally see this move forward. Bill C-5 does make some progress — it does — in bringing back fairer sentencing by our judges, sentencing based on individual circumstances that slowly turn our eyes to the human, social and financial costs of imposing mandatory minimum sentencing.

[Translation]

However the fact remains, honourable senators, that Bill C-5 eliminates only 20 of 73 mandatory minimum sentences, which means there are still 53 others that will continue to contribute to the overincarceration of racialized Canadians. There are still 53.

[English]

Our communities know how long it takes to get these changes and how many suffer during those years of waiting, advocating and pleading.

Bill C-5 and the entire movement to remove mandatory minimums deals with the systemic racism that continues to ruin so many lives, that robs people of options and possibilities and that prevents people from returning to the healing and rehabilitation potential of their communities.

I acknowledge that mandatory minimums are one piece of the puzzle, and we must do more. We need programs, initiatives with comprehensive community infrastructure and a racialized community-focused justice approach to building real solutions for Canadians. We need efforts further upstream in the justice system that address the root causes of offending behaviour, not just measures that address sentencing after these offences. Colleagues, most of all, we need to be looking at this from the eyes of Canadians who live with and are impacted by our judicial system every day.

In his speech this Monday, Senator Gold stated that for many of us criminal law is personal, and he is so right about this.

[Translation]

Every day, our justice system and our correctional institutions have an impact on the lives of Canadians, whether through their own experiences, those of their loved ones or as part of their duties as professionals or advocates in our justice system.

[English]

I believe we should always treat this as a personal issue, a human issue, that permanently impacts the lived experiences, opportunities and prosperity of real Canadians, not just on our data, statistics and bottom lines.

[Translation]

Mandatory minimum sentences are dangerous tools in our justice system and they do not work. They harm Canadians, particularly those from racialized communities who are already fighting against a system that is still riddled with systemic inequalities, racism and discrimination.

[English]

So while from a political and legislative perspective Bill C-5 is a good step in the right direction, from a human and personal standpoint, I’m under no illusion here. We have not gone far enough. This is why I look forward to the opportunity for a robust committee study this fall when we will have the chance to see where and how we get more for Canadians; why I am eager to hear more about Bill C-5 and how it will tie into the government’s Black Canadians Justice Strategy, as stated in the mandate letter of the Minister of Justice; why I’m focused on what more Bill C-5 can do in advancing change in our justice system.

Laudable, yes, we heard that. Bill C-5 is a laudable effort, but it is not shooting for the moon. It is not shooting for the moon, the stars or any other type of distant goal that hangs high above the realities and needs of Canadians. Repealing mandatory minimums is within reach, not out of this world. It’s one small step in the right direction. The first step makes me feel both concerned and hopeful.

I’ll end on hope — hope that the path ahead offers substantial solutions for the racism experienced by Black Canadians in our justice system. Thank you. Nia:wen.