Offender Rehabilitation Act

Bill C-240, called the Offender Rehabilitation Act, changes how courts and correctional authorities can handle offenders during their prison sentences. It gives judges a new power: when sentencing someone to custody, the court can also order the offender to complete specific measures during their time in prison, such as job training or apprenticeship programs, writing a letter acknowledging harm to a victim, participating in a treatment program (with the offender's consent), or other measures the court considers appropriate. The offender must make reasonable efforts to comply, and the court must pass this information along to the Correctional Service of Canada.

The bill also updates the Corrections and Conditional Release Act so that these court-ordered measures are factored into an offender's correctional plan and into decisions about programs offered in prison. When parole boards decide whether to grant parole, they must now also consider reports on how much progress the offender made on any court-ordered measures, in addition to the other information they already review.

Finally, the bill amends the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act so that when someone is sentenced for trafficking fentanyl, the judge must treat large-scale trafficking quantities as an aggravating factor, which would generally lead to a harsher sentence.

This bill gives courts a new power to order offenders to complete specific rehabilitation measures during their prison sentence, and requires this information to feed into correctional planning and parole decisions.

• Who holds the power — sentencing courts may, by order, prescribe measures an offender must take during the custodial portion of their sentence, in addition to the prison term itself.
• What can be ordered — participation in job training or apprenticeship programs (subject to space and program director acceptance), writing to victims or affected persons, participation in a province-approved treatment program (only with the offender's consent), or any other measure the court considers desirable, with no stated limit on this last category.
• Obligation on offender — the offender "must make all reasonable efforts" to complete the prescribed measures within the court-specified period; the bill does not state a specific penalty for failing to do so.
• Information flow to correctional and parole systems — courts must forward details of any such order to the Correctional Service of Canada; the offender's correctional plan and program offerings must take these measures into account; and parole boards must consider the offender's progress on these court-ordered measures when deciding on parole.
• Sentencing factor for fentanyl trafficking — courts sentencing someone convicted of trafficking fentanyl must treat large-scale trafficking quantities as an aggravating factor, without the bill defining a specific quantity threshold.
• Oversight — the bill does not create any review body, reporting requirement to Parliament, appeal mechanism, or sunset clause for these new court powers or the correctional/parole changes.