JustFacts

This fact sheet presents information on criminal court cases where the most serious offence in the case is a drug-related offence subject to a mandatory minimum penalty (MMP).^Footnote1 Data were obtained through a request to the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) and cover the period from 2014/2015 to 2019/2020.^Footnote2

In 2012, the Safe Streets and Communities Act imposed mandatory minimum penalties for certain drug offences. However, in 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada (R v Lloyd) struck down as unconstitutional the one year MMP for trafficking or possession for the purpose of trafficking a Schedule I or II drug, where the offender has been convicted of any drug offence (except possession) within the previous 10 years.

As of November 2022, the remaining drug-related offences subject to an MMP were eliminated as a result of the Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.^Footnote3

All drug-related offences subject to an MMP during the period from 2014/2015 to 2019/2020 were included in the study’s dataset, specifically:

• s. 5, trafficking (90% of all drug-related offences included in the dataset);
• s. 6, importing/exporting of a Schedule I or Schedule II drug (less than 1%); and,
• s. 7, production of a Schedule I or Schedule II drug (other than cannabis) (10%).

The number of cases^Footnote4 with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP decreased and represent a small proportion of all cases involving offences subject to an MMP

The number of cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP as the most serious offence in the case decreased by 64% over the course of the study period, from 586 in 2014/2015 to 212 in 2019/2020.

From 2014/2015 to 2019/2020, cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP as the most serious offence in the case comprised 1% of all cases with an MMP (most serious in the case).

The proportion of cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP with a guilty decision^Footnote5 increased, while those with a withdrawn decision decreased

Over the course of the study period, the most common type of decision in cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP was a finding of guilt. The proportion of cases with a guilty decision increased from 52% in 2014/2015 to 57% in 2019/2020, with a small drop in the proportion of guilty decisions occurring in 2017/2018 (49%).

Withdrawn decisions were the second most common type of decision in cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP. The proportion of cases with a withdrawn decision saw an overall decrease during the study period, from 39% in 2014/2015 to 35% in 2019/2020.

The proportion of cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP with a guilty decision receiving a custodial sentence or probation order increased

Custody was the most common sentence^Footnote6 for cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP with a finding of guilt during the study period. The proportion of guilty cases sentenced to custody increased from 62% in 2014/2015 to 72% in 2019/2020. There was a corresponding decrease in the proportion of guilty cases receiving a conditional sentence, from 15% in 2014/2015 to 3% in 2019/2020.

Probation was the second most common type of decision in cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP. The proportion of cases that received a probation order increased slightly from 18% in 2014/2015 to 22% in 2019/2020.

Median custodial sentence length for cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP increased during the study period, but the majority of custodial sentence lengths were short (i.e., under 1 year)

The median^Footnote7 custodial sentence length for cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP remained stable at 180 days (or approximately 6 months) from 2014/2015 to 2016/2017. In 2017/2018, the median custodial sentence length increased slightly to 205 days (or a little over 6.5 months) before dropping to 150 days (or approximately 5 months) in 2018/2019. The median custodial sentence length increased again to a high of 365 days (or 1 year) in 2019/2020, representing an overall 103% increase during the study period.

During the six-year study period, the majority of cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP sentenced to custody (61%) fell within the “less than 1 year” range. Specifically, the most common sentence length within this range was “over 3 to 6 months” (24% of cases), followed by “over 6 months to 1 year” (16%). There was a marked increase in the proportion of cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP sentenced to a custodial sentence of over 4 years in length within the last 2 years of the study period, from 3% in 2018/2019 to 18% in 2019/2020.

The time to case resolution decreased, but overall averaged around 10 months

The median case processing time (i.e., how long it takes a case to be resolved)^Footnote8 for cases with a drug-related offence subject to an MMP fluctuated over the course of the study period, but saw an overall decrease. In 2014/2015, the median case processing time was 327 days (or a little over 10.7 months). By 2019/2020, the median case processing time had decreased by 11% to 291 days (or a little over 9.5 months).