Canada's Supreme Court gives mixed rulings on gun crime penalties

FILE PHOTO: The Supreme Court building is pictured in Ottawa March 21, 2014. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's Supreme Court found one mandatory minimum sentence for a firearm offence unconstitutional and upheld two others in a pair of decisions published on Friday.

Two of the three cases at issue used hypothetical scenarios that defence counsel argued could render these mandatory minimums unconstitutional because they would constitute cruel and unusual punishment in certain instances.