Vancouver's Pivot Legal Society is calling on lawyers across the country to challenge mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes.
Pivot lawyer Scott Bernstein says the Harper goverment's "tough on crime legislation" -- enacted last year -- violates an offender's Charter rights in three possible ways.
He says, "Section 12, that's the right to not be subject to cruel and unusual punishment and treatment. The other is Section 7, the right to life, liberty and security of the person. and the other is Section 15, which is the equality provision and the idea that people should have equal treatment under the law."
While the Government says the tougher sentences target gang leaders and drug kingpins, a Pivot study found the punishments see low-income addicts cycled in an out of prison with "devastating consequences for their health and their communities."