Supreme Court ruling: one day in jail enough for aboriginal youth who beat refugee to death

From CanWest News Service via the National Post (One day jail enough for youth who beat man to death: SCOC by Jim Brown, June 22):

OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada, in a judgment sure to spark controversy, has refused to boost a sentence of one day in jail for a Winnipeg teenager who beat a man to death with a billiard ball wrapped in a sock.

In a 7-0 ruling Thursday, the court said the Youth Criminal Justice Act, as currently written, doesn't allow for increasing a sentence just to send a get-tough message to the public.

Reaction from the Conservative government was swift, but was aimed at the previous Liberal administration rather than the judiciary.

[. . .]

The case arose from a 2001 incident in which an aboriginal youth, who was 15 at the time and cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Chya Saleh, a 22-year-old Kurdish refugee from Iraq.

[. . .]

Read the whole article: One day jail enough for youth