What factors will the courts use to determine whether a mandatory minimum punishment under section 12 of the Charter is disproportionate?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v. MacKenzie, 2001 BCPC 301 (CanLII):
These factors are guidelines only and must not be applied so as to require the standard of perfection from our legislators. A mandatory minimum punishment will not be easily upset in an application under Section 12 of the Charter. As Cory J. says in Steele v. Mountain Institution , 1990 CanLII 50 (SCC), [1990] 2 S.C.R. 1385: It will only be on rare and unique occasions that a court will find a sentence so grossly disproportionate that it violates the provisions of s. 12 of the Charter. The test for determining whether a sentence is disproportionately long is very properly stringent and demanding. A lesser test would tend to trivialize the Charter.
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