Trudeau minister says being tough on crime is ‘stupid’ after questioned over light sentence for pedophile

This comment followed a question by Conservative MP Rob Moore who was dismayed that a child molester only received 22 months behind bars.

Moore said that “a Montreal man found guilty of sexually assaulting a four-year-old in 2015 was charged recently with making and distributing child pornography during that period that he was having court-ordered supervised visits with the child he abused.”

“This man was sentenced to a mere 22 months in prison for abusing this child,” he added. “The minister has stated that he will look to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences to grant even more discretion in sentencing. Does the minister really think that justice is being served in a case like this?”

The Liberal justice minister responded to the question by saying “cases like these are obviously tragic. Our hearts go out to the victims. It’s also true that in our criminal justice system we rely a great deal on the facts and the evidence in any particular case, as well as giving common law tradition, giving judges the ability to access sentences as they move forward.”

After this, the Justice Minister then went on to controversially say that “I will say, Mr. Speaker, with all certainty that the previous Conservative government’s ‘tough on crime’ stance was actually quite stupid on crime.”

This comment received significant backlash from the Conservative benches.