‘In Québec, we believe that the sentences handed down must reflect the seriousness of the offences,’ wrote Quebec’s Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette
OTTAWA — Alberta has an unlikely new ally when it comes to the fight against crime: Quebec.
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In an op-ed published in the National Post on Monday, Quebec’s Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette expressed strong support for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s recent criminal justices initiatives and took a jab at the federal government on minimum mandatory sentencing for sexual violence and drug-related offences.
“In Québec, we believe that the sentences handed down must reflect the seriousness of the offences. The victims of these heinous crimes must live with the consequences for the rest of their lives,” wrote Jolin-Barrette.
“The lax approach that the federal Liberals advocate to suppress crime marks a major step backward and is hampering the recovery of far too many victims,” he added.
Québec, he noted, asked the federal government to reconsider and restore mandatory minimum sentencing through a motion unanimously adopted in the National Assembly in December.
“This legitimate request to protect young people has come to nothing,” he said.
According to Alberta and Quebec, the provinces would be better suited to prosecute criminals and should get additional funding from Ottawa to permanently take over all Controlled Drugs and Substances Act prosecutions, currently under federal jurisdiction.
“The position taken by Quebec and Alberta is legitimate: federated states must be able to make their own choices to ensure public safety,” wrote Jolin-Barrette.
“In order to bolster our mutual autonomy, it is vital that we strengthen collaboration between our provinces and that we join forces to combat crime,” he added.
In a statement to the National Post, Virani’s spokesperson Anna Lisa Lowenstein slammed “Danielle Smith and other Premiers across this country” for “taking a page from (conservative leader Pierre) Poilievre’s fear-mongering playbook—pushing extreme, unconstitutional policies that do nothing to keep Canadians safe and feed false narratives about the Canadian border”.
“Our drug laws are some of the toughest in the world. Fentanyl trafficking is punishable by life in prison,” Lowenstein said.
“But instead of targeting organized crime, Poilievre and a few Premiers want to throw thousands of struggling Canadians behind bars for life, regardless of their medical conditions. That’s not justice—it’s cruelty.”
In fact, Quebec is going even further than Smith’s government. In December, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion calling for repeal of two sections permitting hate speech in the Criminal Code.
In his letter, Jolin-Barrette said that these two sections “allow for hateful, antisemitic speech when it presents a religious viewpoint.”
He accused the Trudeau government of perpetuating the legal shortcomings that are “contributing to inward-looking attitudes, communitarianism, and social exclusion, thereby protecting behaviour and speech that leads to discrimination and violence.”
“Such speech contributes to a toxic climate and threatens the safety and well-being of the individuals targeted,” he wrote.
Though, Virani’s office doesn’t agree at all with the minister, stating that the Criminal Code section referenced to by Mr. Jolin-Barrette has never been successfully used as a legal defence.
“Hate speech is markedly different from free expression. Hate speech is not acceptable in Canada and our Criminal Code has hate propaganda offences to protect Canadians from speech that crosses the line,” wrote Lowenstein.
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