Crime bill hysteria [No, the Tories aren't 'Americanizing' Canadian justice]

Sun Media via Toronto Sun ^ | 2011-09-29 | Lorrie Goldstein

[Clive]

Today let’s separate the sensible opposition concerns about the Tories’ omnibus crime bill from the absurd ones.

It’s legitimate for the opposition to ask why the Conservatives are determined to pass this huge bill within their totally artificial deadline of 100 sitting days since taking office, since they have a majority government and almost four years to do so.

The problem with omnibus bills is that in attempting to jam a wide range of legislation into one document, they often result in legislative blunders that would not have occurred if the bills had been scrutinized separately.

That said, there is much in the Tory bill that is sensible and that the opposition parties have, ironically, criticized them in the past for not introducing as omnibus legislation.

For example, stricter laws to protect children from sex crimes, codifying the rights of crime victims at parole hearings and toughening eligibility for parole, long overdue when a rapist sentenced to nine years in prison can typically be out on unescorted day passes in 18 months and full parole in three years.

Some proposals need refining — for example, one which would see a marijuana grower with as few as six plants sentenced to a mandatory minimum of six months in prison. That said, the Tories are rightly determined to increase light penalties for large-scale grow-ops run by organized crime.

Other proposals which will strike most people as reasonable — for example, ending the present practice of handing out criminal pardons like candy — nonetheless raise the hackles of opposition MPs, criminal lawyers, academics and prisoners’ rights groups.

Keep in mind, however, that the passage of new laws alone rarely “toughens” the justice system as much as intended, given inevitable court challenges before a judiciary, which is too often out of touch with the views of ordinary Canadians on crime and particularly violent crime.

The Tories would be better advised to package their less -controversial initiatives into one bill for speedy passage and then devote the time to getting the more contentious legislation right and thus less likely to be overturned in the courts.

That said, one must have sympathy for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives in that every time they try to reform the justice system, all the usual suspects immediately ramp up their silly, hysterical rhetoric to absurd levels.

For example, the ridiculous charge the Tories are driving us toward American rates of prison incarceration.

In reality, there would appear to be very little danger of this.

According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, Canada imprisons 116 criminals per 100,000 population compared to 756 per 100,000 in the U.S.

This means the U.S. incarceration is 550% higher than ours.

While our incarceration rate surpasses some European countries, we are below the average of the 34 member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Tory sentencing reforms will, if successful, raise our incarceration rates closer to that of comparable, first-world, English-speaking countries, all of which at present have higher incarceration rates than ours, including England and Wales (153 per 100,000) Australia (129), Scotland (152) and New Zealand (185).

So the next time the charter members of Canada’s “hug-a-thug” crazy train charge the Tories are “Americanizing” Canadian incarceration rates, try confusing them with the facts.

[Clive]

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[factoryrat]

I don’t think the idea is to throw every single lawbreaker in jail, but single out the real despicable, scum of the earth types, and throw them in jail. The trick is to know where to draw the line between the redeemable, and the lost causes.

[Oatka]

a judiciary, which is too often out of touch with the views of ordinary Canadians on crime and particularly violent crime.

We've got the same problem here.

[chesley]

The trick is to know where to draw the line between the redeemable, and the lost causes

Well, let's see. Premeditated murderers, forcible rapists, child molesters, sex traffickers, and kidnappers, should never see the light of day again. I'm OK with just about everybody else getting a second chance after a few years to think it over.