CANCELLED - Sentencing in Canada: Do Canadian courts have sufficient guidance?

In light of recent events surrounding COVID-19 (Coronavirus), this event is postponed. We hope to reschedule in Fall 2020.

You are invited to the 2020 Proulx Roundtable Conference in Criminal Law. This year, guests Justice Patrick Healy, Quebec Court of Appeal, Professor Julian V. Roberts, University of Oxford, and Dean Marie-Eve Sylvestre, University of Ottawa, will examine sentencing in Canada. The presentations and panel will be moderated by Professor Marie Manikis, William Dawson Chair at McGill's Faculty of Law.

Abstract

Appellate review has been the principal mechanism of guidance in Canada for sentencing judges. Yet other models have been developed and implemented in other jurisdictions.

This panel will consider two alternative models: the traditional appellate review approach and guidance issued by an independent statutory authority – a Sentencing Commission.

There will be three presentations followed by general discussion. Justice Healy will explore the role of the appellate courts at sentencing in Canada, with particular emphasis on the standard of review and the level of guidance. Professor Roberts will then discuss the alternative approach which has been adopted in England and Wales and several other common law jurisdictions. The Sentencing Council of England and Wales has issued offence-specific guidelines and guidelines addressing issues of relevance to all cases, including sentence reductions for a guilty plea. Dean Sylvestre will then explore the impact of both models on the sentencing of marginalized populations in Canada and the ability of the judiciary to innovate.

The event will be followed by a cocktail in the Foyer.

The speakers

Justice Patrick Healy was appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2016 after nine years as a judge of the Court of Quebec, Criminal and Penal Division. Prior to his appointment as a judge, he was a professor at McGill's Faculty of Law, from which he graduated in 1981. He specialised in matters of criminal law, including substantive law, procedure, evidence, sentencing, comparative criminal law and international criminal law.

Professor Julian Roberts taught for many years in Canada at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa before joining the University of Oxford. He was a researcher for the Canadian Sentencing Commission (1984-1987). From 2009-2018 he was a member of the Sentencing Council of England and Wales which issues statutorily-binding guidelines for courts in that jurisdiction. His most recent publication is Sentencing in Canada: Essays in Law, Policy and Practice, with Justice David Cole and published by Irwin Law in 2020.

Professor Marie-Eve Sylvestre is Dean and Full Professor at the Faculty of Civil Law of the University of Ottawa. Professor Sylvestre holds a S.J.D. from Harvard Law School. Her research focuses on the regulation and criminalization of poverty and social conflicts related to public spaces, including homelessness, street-level sex work and drug use and political dissent. She is also interested in alternative responses to criminalization, in particular in the Indigenous context. She has published extensively in law, criminology and geography. Her most recent book, Red Zones: Criminal Law and the Territorial Governance of Marginalized People, co-authored with Nicholas Blomley and Céline Bellot, was published by Cambridge University Press.

The Michel Proulx Memorial Lecture Fund

The Michel Proulx Memorial Lecture Fund was established by family, friends and alumni, to honour the memory of Michel Proulx: lawyer, judge and dedicated teacher of criminal law at McGill. His commitment to the Faculty was constant and devoted, providing counsel and encouragement to students, teachers and deans. As a result, he left his mark upon generations of students at McGill.