Canadian court will consider when minors can be sentenced as adults

By Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s highest court is scheduled to hear arguments on Tuesday about when a juvenile can be considered an adult for sentencing purposes.

The result could reshape the way Canada sentences young people and could, one lawyer told Reuters, serve as an example for other Western countries to follow.

At issue are the cases of IM and SB, two young men who cannot be identified under Canadian law because the crimes for which they were convicted occurred when they were minors.

IM was convicted of first-degree murder following a stabbing in 2011 when he was 17 years old.

SB was convicted of first-degree murder after a shooting in 2010 when he was 16 years old.

Both were sentenced as adults to life sentences without parole for 10 years.

They are appealing their sentences to the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing that prosecutors failed to fulfill their obligation to rebut the presumption of “diminished moral culpability” of the defendants.

Under Canadian law, people accused of crimes committed when they were under 18 are considered less culpable for their actions due to immaturity. The prosecutor may request that they be treated as adults.

A 2008 Supreme Court ruling placed the burden on prosecutors to rebut the presumption that a young person has diminished moral culpability so that he or she can be treated as an adult.

Lawyers for IM and SB argue that the bar for rebutting this presumption needs to be high and must require the presentation of expert evidence.

They also argue that it is not enough for a crime to be serious: a young person must be mature to be sentenced as an adult.

The government argues in its court case that the seriousness of a crime is relevant to assessing moral culpability, that expert evidence is not necessary, and that IM and SB were properly convicted as adults.

It’s common for young people convicted of serious crimes to be sentenced as adults, according to University of British Columbia law professor Debra Parkes. Of the 102 youth homicide cases he studied, prosecutors sought adult sentences in 89 and imposed them in 62, all of them life sentences.

“It’s actually more normal to sentence juveniles as adults when the charge is murder,” she said.

Nader Hasan, IM’s lawyer, said a Supreme Court ruling could clarify when a child can be sentenced as an adult – something now done inconsistently.

“The presumption should be that children are sentenced as children unless there is a really good reason not to do so. And that really good reason has to come in the form of expert evidence,” he said.

“I am hopeful that this case, if we are successful and if we start to see more youth sentencings, can serve as a positive example of what youth sentencing should be like in a democracy.”

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Sam Holmes)