Blac News

Bill C-5 – An Act to amend the Criminal Codeand the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

BLAC, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) and the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) urge Parliament to:

  • amend Bill C-5 to remove all mandatory minimums,
  • remove the ban on conditional sentences for offences with a mandatory minimum penalty
  • allow trial judges to depart from mandatory minimum sentences and restrictions on the use of conditional sentences
  • amend s. 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code to include specific reference to Black defendants
  • fully decriminalize simple drug possession, and provide automatic expungement of criminal records for simple drug possession

Read our full submissions here or a summary of our submissions here.

The Black Legal Action Centre

Established in 2017, the Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) is an independent not-for-profit community legal clinic that combats individual and systemic anti-Black racism by providing free legal services, conducting research, developing public legal education materials, and engaging in test case litigation and law reform.