This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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Judge David Paciocco have mentioned in a court ruling that mandatory victim surcharges are cruel and unusual mode of punishment, as he commented in the case of a penniless Inuit man, Shaun Michael, whose crimes were a “social nuisance committed by the desperate and pitiable” but was still forced to pay $900.
According to the court ruling announced on Thursday, Paciocco criticized removing judges’ ability to waive the levies for poor offenders, which the Conservative government imposed last October in a “tough-on-crime” initiative. Paciocco alleged that it makes them grossly disproportionate and thus unconstitutional. Shaun Michael’s lawyer, Stuart Konyer, welcomed the ruling but hoped that the issue will be taken up by other judges across the country and eventually make it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Konyer alleged that “this is the first level but it’s certainly an important decision and it’s a very considered and well-reasoned decision.” He added that “it’s the first case in Eastern Ontario at least to be argued on its merits and a full decision reached on the merits so its important in that sense.”
26-year-old Michael was jailed for four months with two years’ probation after admitting to have kicked a loss prevention officer and a police officer when caught stealing a bottle of booze, breaking the window of a shelter and lashing out at another officer called because he was wandering in traffic. Paciocco confessed that peace officers have a right to be protected on the job, but no one was hurt or seriously endangered by the crimes of the slight, intoxicated man.
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