Equality of the sexes in sentencing
Drafted 28 August 2026 · an Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act · not yet filed
This one needs no statistics. The distinction is printed in the federal statute, in words, and anyone can read it.
What the statute says
233 A female person commits infanticide when by a wilful act or omission she causes the death of her newly-born child, if at the time of the act or omission she is not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to the child and by reason thereof or of the effect of lactation consequent on the birth of the child her mind is then disturbed.
Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, s. 233
The punishment is fixed by section 237: an indictable offence, maximum five years.
The same act, by the father of the same newly-born child, in the same house, on the same night, is murder under section 229: imprisonment for life, with parole eligibility set between ten and twenty-five years under section 745.
What the Act does
1. The distinction goes, and Parliament chooses how
Part 1 is drafted in two alternative versions, and Parliament enacts one of them. Version A repeals the offence, so that every person answers under the law of homicide. Version B extends it to any person having the care of the newly-born child, so that every person may rely on it.
The draft does not prefer either. What it does not permit is that the distinction survive because neither version was convenient.
2. A principle of sentencing, and a statement on the record
A sentence is neither to be increased nor reduced by reason of the sex or gender of the offender, and the court states, when imposing sentence, that it has complied with that principle. A principle nobody is required to mention is a principle nobody can be shown to have ignored.
3. Outcomes get measured
The Minister of Justice tables in each House an annual report of sentencing outcomes disaggregated by sex and controlled for the offence, the criminal record, the plea and the aggravating circumstances, and a committee of Parliament reviews it. Parliament has never required that these differences be measured, published or explained.
4. Custody, after sentence
The Corrections and Conditional Release Act is amended to require classification, programming, work, education and health services without discrimination on the basis of sex, and to require public reporting of the per-offender cost of custody by sex and by institution.
The constitutional footing
Section 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights in it equally to male and female persons, notwithstanding anything else in the Charter. Section 15 guarantees equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination based on sex. The Criminal Code continues to define an offence, and to fix its punishment, by reference to the sex of the person who commits it.
Every quotation on this page is the text in force, captured from the federal consolidation. The bill text is published here when it is filed.