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“This is not the first case where Quebec authorities have flouted, if not outright ignored, the sentencing requirements set out in the Criminal Code – legislation that is of federal origin and therefore applies to all jurisdictions within Canada,” wrote Judge Baltman.

This is not the first case where Quebec authorities have flouted, if not outright ignored, the sentencing requirements

Last year, a pre-sentencing report prepared in Quebec was so ‘‘shameful” and exhibited such “contempt” for the offender, that another Brampton judge claimed he was forced to hand the offender a lighter sentence.

The new sentencing hearing was for Kelvin McPherson, a 36-year-old Montreal man convicted of prostitution charges. For one and a half years, he forced his girlfriend – who was nearly 15 years his junior – to perform sex acts for strangers and seized virtually all of her income, which often topped out at more than $1,000 a day.

Under the Criminal Code, prior to any sentencing a parole officer must first prepare a pre-sentencing report; essentially a bare-bones run-down of the offender’s “age, maturity, character, behaviour, attitude and willingness to make amends.” According to the 2001 book The Law of Sentencing, the ideal pre-sentencing report should convey nothing more than the “background, character and circumstances of the person convicted.”

What the Brampton court received instead was a lengthy discourse, prepared by Montreal-based parole officer Lisette Charland, rehashing the most comtemptuous details of McPherson’s crime and reiterating his guilt.