Conservative criminalization of poverty advocated in flyer

On Wednesday last week, I received a menacing-looking flyer from our local MP indicating that "Age is No Excuse" and reminding me the Conservative Government believes “no one is above the law”. The flyer says, “The Conservative Government supports tougher laws so young punks and thugs will learn to take responsibility for their serious crimes.”

In Saturday’s Toronto Star, in the last of an eight part series on Crime and Punishment, I read there is a consensus among Canadian experts on the front-end reforms needed for safer communities: reduce poverty and school drop-out rates; invest in comprehensive childhood development initiatives; make housing affordable; increase access to health care and rehabilitative programs; and reduce incarceration rates, partly through alternatives to jail, and (then) direct those savings to neighbourhoods with a high number of offenders.”

The Conservative Government of our MP wants Canadians to adopt an American-style justice system where one in a hundred adults are in prison, the highest incarceration rate in the world. The American system of incarceration has not reduced crime rates. Yet, in Canada, we learned from a study of police departments published last week that Canada has the lowest crime rates in over a decade. Criminalizing poverty hasn’t worked in the USA, why would I believe the Conservative Government has the answer when the experts are shouting loudly to do the exact opposite of what they are purporting as a solution?

Seems to me the Conservative Government is trying to sell a bill of goods that is not even of their own invention. Criminalizing the poor, the homeless, the poorly educated, the mentally ill, the unemployed and those addicted to drugs or alcohol is no sound way to solve the problems of our society.

Neither is raising the fear level of the population through menacing flyers (which taxpayers pay for). The experts say, “the new ‘tough on crime’ measure put it squarely in the pay-more-later camp.” We can pay now to solve our problems through solutions that get at the core of the issues or we can pay much more later by criminalizing them.

Seems to me the experts win the point. We can’t afford the Conservative Government’s approach.

Action from Liberals, hypocrisy from Harper

The Liberals have been trying for over a year to get several pieces of crime legislation passed quickly. The Conservative government has been doing everything in its power to block its own legislation so they can turn around and say it's the fault of the Liberals. This strategy is so ludicrous that the Conservatives themselves laugh at it.

Official Opposition Moves to Prevent Government from Stalling Crime Legislation

October 21, 2007

OTTAWA – While the Conservative government is focused exclusively on exploiting criminal justice issues for partisan gain, the Liberal Party is again renewing its efforts to actually pass legislation that would protect Canadian communities as quickly as possible, said Liberal Justice Critic Marlene Jennings today.

“On Thursday, the government proposed legislation to supposedly tackle violent crime, but, in effect, their new bill will actually delay implementation of these measures, since most of what is included in their bill has already passed through the House of Commons thanks to the efforts of the Official Opposition,” said Ms. Jennings.

To prevent another Conservative procedural roadblock, the Official Opposition will propose that all parties agree that the bill be deemed adopted at second reading so it can move immediately to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice. This is yet another in a long string of offers that the Liberal Party has made to advance the Conservative government’s justice legislation.

The new Tackling Violent Crime Bill (Bill C-2) is simply an amalgamation of five pieces of justice legislation that were introduced by the Conservatives in the last session. The five bills dealt with mandatory minimum sentences (C-10), the age of consent (C-22), the dangerous offender regime (C-27), impaired driving (C-32) and bail reform (C-35). All five of those bills have already passed second reading in the House of Commons.

“By re-introducing these rolled together as a new bill, they’re discarding the work already done, slowing down the process, and, worst of all, misleading Canadians who clearly want to see this legislation passed,” said Ms. Jennings.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve attempted to move on this file, contrary to the statements by the Minister of Justice. Our first offer was made over a year ago. Back in March, we proposed one of our own Opposition Days to pass the government’s bills, but were blocked by procedural tricks by this government,” said Ms. Jennings.

“This is further proof while the government makes threats, we make progress.”

(http://www.liberal.ca/story_13224_e.aspx)