Bill C-70

SUMMARY

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to create a presumption that courts shall not make conditional sentence orders when sentencing offenders convicted of serious personal injury offences, terrorism offences, criminal organization offences or any other offences whose nature and circumstances are such that they require the paramount sentencing objective of the court to be the expression of society’s denunciation. It also allows a court to suspend a conditional sentence order pending appeal, and, before doing so, to order the accused to enter into an undertaking or recognizance. In addition, this enactment clarifies that the minimum punishment provided for offences under sections 253 and 254 of the Criminal Code applies to impaired driving offences causing bodily harm or death and provides that a court may order that the time served under an order prohibiting the operation of a means of transport be served consecutively to the time served under any other similar order that is in force.