A Winnipeg teenager who beat a Kurdish refugee to death with a billiard ball hidden in a sock has been sentenced to one day in jail.

The sentence was issued under the controversial new Youth Criminal Justice Act that passed on April 1.

The new legislation was intended to keep young kids from serving time in jail for non-violent crimes. It was supposed to impose harsher sentences for serious offences, such as murder.

Manitoba's justice minister, Gord Mackintosh, says the system doesn't work.

"What we predicted to Ottawa is coming true," said Mackintosh, who is opposed to the legislation.

"I think there's a serious impact on public confidence in the youth justice system by this new legislation."

After exchanging heated words on a downtown doorstep in August 2002, the teen, who cannot be named, followed Chya Raup Saleh, 22, to his car. He smashed one of Saleh's car windows with the hidden billiard ball before using the makeshift weapon to strike Saleh in the head.

Saleh managed to drive himself back to his apartment where he was later found dead. An autopsy showed the cause of death to be blunt trauma to the head.

The teen, now 17, pleaded guilty to manslaughter even though he said he doesn't recall committing the crime because he was too drunk. He was sentenced to 15 months community service and one day in prison.

Provincial court justice Ron Meyers suggested the new legislation is a lot less stringent than the former.

"There is every likelihood that had sentencing taken place prior to April 1, 2003," said Meyers, "the Crown's request that (the teen) serve a substantial portion of the 12-15 months (in jail) would have been a fitting disposition."

Described by friends and family as a kind young man, Saleh immigrated to Canada from Iraq in 2000 as a Kurdish refugee. First settling in Toronto then moving to Winnipeg to learn English and find a job, Saleh told friends he had fled Saddam Hussein's regime.

"Chya's gone. It's a very sad thing that he couldn't find protection here that he so much needed," said the victim's friend, Janis Nickel.