The Supreme Court of Canada’s 5-4 decision to strike down a one-year mandatory minimum sentence for accessing or possessing child pornography is yet another example of why Canada is never going to be tough on crime.

It demonstrates why, even when Canadian governments make modest efforts to bolster the valid sentencing principles of deterrence and denunciation of crime, they confront a criminal justice system that is all about the often naively hoped-for rehabilitation of the offender.

In striking down the one-year mandatory minimum sentence as unconstitutional and cruel and unusual punishment, the court did not address the cases before it — two men who had previously pleaded guilty to child porn offences.

We’ve toned down the actual description of their offences because they are so dist

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