MONTREAL — A Quebec minister responsible for fighting racism is criticizing a ruling by a judge who reduced a convicted Black man’s sentence due to systemic discrimination.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Christopher Skeete said that someone’s race should not be a factor affecting sentencing for a crime.

“I question whether or not as a society this is exactly where we want to go,” the minister said. “Do we really want to formalize discrimination in the attribution of sentences for people who perpetrate crimes?”

Skeete was reacting to a Quebec court ruling by Judge Magali Lepage, who sentenced Frank Paris, 52, to a two-year sentence in late July, after he pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking cannabis and hashish.

Paris’s lawyer, Andrew Galliano, said the Crown had initially

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