Senneville shows Supreme Court rejects moral panic, not Charter rights

OPINION By Michael Spratt Nov 14, 2025 / Share

Canada’s Supreme Court did something unremarkable last week. It applied the Charter, though judging by some reactions, that now counts as judicial activism.

In the 5–4 Quebec (Attorney General) v. Senneville decision, the court struck down a one-year mandatory minimum sentence for possessing or accessing child pornography. The majority repeated what it has said for decades: punishment must fit both the crime and the offender. A single mandatory penalty that treats everyone the same, from experienced abusers to naïve teenagers, fails that test.

There is no debate about the seriousness of child exploitation. It is abhorrent. The law already allows for the imposition of severe sentences, and those sentences are most often far above t