ALG’s Samara Secter and Cori Singer were counsel to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association as intervener in a recent case from the Supreme Court of Canada on adult sentences for young offenders. The Court released its decision in R. v. I.M., 2025 SCC 23 on July 18, 2025.

The Court ruled that young offenders are entitled to a youth sentence rather than an adult sentence unless the government can rebut the presumption of youths’ diminished moral blameworthiness beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a much higher standard than most sentencing judges were applying before the Court’s decision.

The Court also held that the seriousness of the offence was not relevant to determining whether the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness has been rebutted. The Court accepted the CCLA’s submission that considering seriousness of the offence in the analysis can cause judges to incorrectly conflate the moral blameworthiness of the offender with the moral blameworthiness of the offence.

Samara and Cori’s submission to the Supreme Court is available on the Supreme Court’s website.

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