The Nearly Extinct "Faint Hope Clause" in King's Bench

Kim Ross appeared in the Court of King's Bench, making submissions before the Associate Chief Justice of Alberta on behalf of his client in an extremely rare legal matter, s745.61(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada, or colloquially the 'faint hope clause.'

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government repealed this section of the Code and Mr. Ross' client is one of the few remaining cases in Canada to which this section applies. As written in the opinion of the Right Honorable D.B. Nixon A.C.J., Mr. Mehari was convicted of first-degree murder on March 12th, 2010, and sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility for 25 years. Having served 16 of those years, he filed a screening application with the court seeking a reduction in the number of years he will be required to serve before reaching parole eligibility.

In a thoughtful, and purposeful analysis of the law, the court evaluated Mr. Ross’ submissions in regard to Mr. Mehari's continued efforts towards improvement and rehabilitation, considering various factors like vocational training and education conducted while serving his sentence. After the analysis, the court concluded that he agreed with Mr. Ross that Mr. Mehari's application would, on the balance of probabilities, succeed before a jury, and that the evidence was sufficiently persuasive. The court will now move to empanel a jury to hear the application.

Read the full decision, R v Mehari, [2026] ABKB 690, on CanLII.