Intertribal Life Newspaper -

OTTAWA, Ont.-The federal government will adopt changes to its criminal justice legislation, Bill C-75, which will require judges to consider harsher sentences in cases of violence against Indigenous women, according to a motion from Justice Minister David Lametti.

Lametti said the changes to the bill are "in the spirit of the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls," and will recommend harsher penalties for those who commit crimes against Indigenous women.

The government's decision was welcomed by Independent Sen. Lillian Dyck, who proposed the amendments to a Senate committee last month. "I believe it's going to make a significant change," Dyck said. She proposed two amendments to Bill C-75 that could lead to harsher sentences in cases of violence against Indigenous women. One required judges to prioritize denunciation and deterrence in cases of domestic violence, as opposed to the rehabilitation of offenders-a requirement that generally results in stricter sentences.

In Lametti's motion, the government has expanded that requirement beyond domestic violence cases to include abuse of any person who is vulnerable "because of personal circumstances-including because the person is Aboriginal and female."

The second amendment requires judges to consider the "increased vulnerability" of female victims, particularly Indigenous women, during sentencing of domestic violence cases.

Neither change to the Criminal Code is exactly what the national inquiry recommended, which was to consider violence against Indigenous women an aggravating factor during sentencing. But Dyck said her amendments will have largely the same effect. She said research shows that offenders convicted of killing Indigenous women tend to get paroled several months earlier than in cases with non-Indigenous victims.

Dyck tabled a bill in 2015 that would have made violence against Indigenous women an aggravating factor in sentencing, but it was defeated in the House of Commons earlier this year.

The national inquiry also recommended automatic first-degree murder charges in homicide cases where there is a pattern of domestic violence. The government has not acted on that proposal.

Meanwhile, the government is compromising on another controversial aspect of Bill C-75: preliminary inquiries, which are court hearings to determine if there is enough evidence to move to trial. As originally drafted in the legislation, the government planned to remove most of them in order to reduce court delays, and also to prevent the "re-victimization" of requiring two rounds of testimony -particularly in sexual assault cases.

The original bill only allowed them for the 70 Criminal Code offences carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. But many legal organizations criticized this move, arguing preliminary inquiries were a small drain on court time but still provided a valuable early test of the prosecution's evidence-and in some cases even helped reduce court delays by avoiding a trial. 

The Senate voted to restore preliminary inquiries for nearly all indictable offences, with the condition that the judge ensure the impact on complainants is mitigated. This change would have boosted the number of qualifying Criminal Code offences to 463.

The government decided to find a middle ground, proposing to allow preliminary inquiries for offences with a maximum sentence of 14 years and above. That would bring the number of offences for which preliminary inquiries are available to 156.