It didn't take long for the new Liberal government to start signalling change as it formally took power in Ottawa.

A three-year mandatory minimum sentence for gun possession is "cruel and unusual punishment," Ontario's top court ruled Tuesday in striking down a plank of Ottawa's law-and-order agenda.

Liberal MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler had a question for the government last month about one of their omnibus crime bills, the Safe Streets and Communities Act.