Split SCC strikes down one-year mandatory minimums for accessing or possessing child pornography

By Cristin Schmitz ( October 31, 2025, 7:06 PM EDT) -- Dividing over what is too “remote” a hypothetical scenario to qualify as “reasonable” when sentencing judges are assessing the constitutionality of a mandatory minimum penalty (MMP), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-4 that the one-year MMPs for accessing or possessing child pornography are unconstitutional as they would be grossly disproportionate in some hypothetical, but reasonably foreseeable, circumstances....