Constitutional challenge over child porn minimum sentence fails

Two Regina men who challenged in court the mandatory minimum sentence for possession of child pornography will still spend a year in jail.

Jason Michael Brown was arrested in 2017 after complaints about suspected child porn files uploaded to Google servers and a complaint about him sharing child porn images through Facebook with someone in Great Britain.

After searching Brown’s home and seizing several devices, police say they found 117 unique images of child pornography.

Dave William Stout was arrested in 2019 after a complaint that someone — who turned out to be Stout, according to court documents — was seen watching three child porn videos at the Regina Public Library.

Police found 67 images and five videos of child pornography on devices seized from Stout’s home.

While the men were arrested and pleaded guilty separately, they had the same lawyer and their sentencing arguments were done together because their cases involve similar issues.

The mandatory minimum sentence in Canada for possession of child pornography is one year in jail.

The lawyer for the men argued the mandatory minimum sentence is cruel and unusual punishment and therefore violates their Charter rights.

In her decision, Judge Anna M. Crugnale-Reid talked about the purpose of sentencing and noted Parliament has kept increasing the minimum sentences for sexual offences against children to reflect the gravity of the offences.

Crugnale-Reid determined the appropriate sentence for both was one year in jail and two years of probation anyway, so she wrote the constitutional question over the minimum sentence was a moot point.