Continued from Part 1 (Young Offenders Overview)
If the young offender is sentenced as an adult, the sentencing principles of the YCJA are not applicable.3 Although the YCJA emphasizes the need to act promptly in every case, this does not mean that courts will take a different approach to applications of delay pursuant to subsection 11(b) of the Charter.
Section 3 of the Act contains, in effect, the philosophy behind the Act. There are many competing interests to be considered according to this philosophy. Youth Court Judges often provide disparate decisions based upon which of the specific principles, many inconsistent with one another, the court decides to emphasize. The considerations mentioned above focus on the young offender, but as can be seen from a careful reading of section 3 of the Act our federal government continues to add provisions that increasingly place emphasis not only young offender but on the “victim” of the crime alleged.
As will be seen, other provisions of the Act also provide what might be described as “victim rights” that sometimes also come into sharp conflict with the general principles of section 3.
The above is the an excerpt of Patrick J Ducharme’s book, Canadian Criminal Procedure, available at Amazon or in bulk through MedicaLegal Publishing along with Criminal Trial Strategies.
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