But, I found myself in agreement with him Tuesday when he critiqued the Tories' new Omnibus Tough on Crime Bill.
Rae found that in this day of crumbling economics, there are better ways to spend Canada's limited financial resources than on tough on crime measures and prison building.
And in that I agree.
If the Tories had added but one word to their Bill, I would be in support of it; and that word is 'Violent'
As in 'Tough on Violent Crime Bill'.
Assuming of course that the Bill limit its application to 'violent offenders'; which I not so sure it does.
And hence my sympathy with Rae and company.
Let me be totally honest with you as well. I have not read the Omnibus Bill - nor even intend to so if it turns out that it does apply mostly to violent criminals my mind could be changed.
But I do know that one of its provisions is to get tough on marijuana growers having as few as 6 plants which hardly seems "violent" to me. Indeed I am on record as saying pot should be decriminalized and police efforts directed to areas where they can really make a difference.
And all this said, Canada already has, I believe, all the measures it needs to fight crime of all types; it can be found in our extensive and comprehensive Criminal Code. And this applies to the Police, the Prosecution, and the Judges.
The problem as I see it is that there is not enough effort to properly enforce what already exists.
A couple of examples:
A few years ago my wife was in Montreal and parked her car on Ste. Catherines, probably the busiest street in the city. She parked in the well lit lot directly beside her Regional Office.
She had parked in day light but when she returned to her car, a few hours later, it was starting to get dark. Someone had broken the car's door lock and had opened the trunk and taken her suitcase which contained some valuable jewellery.
Anne called the police who told her to come to their office and make a report. The report they told her was for insurance purposes since they would not spend anytime on it given the high number of such incidents occurring each day.
Excuse me? If that type of thing was happening so often, one would think it would warrant some priority on the part of the gendarmes.
Another recent case here in Ottawa, saw a small corner store owner swarmed by 40 or so punks yet no charges have been laid despite the fact that the police have pictures of each of these individual swarmers. And despite the fact that this store owner has been the subject of numerous robberies of late. Why not stake the store out and put a stop to this reoccurring criminal activity?
And of course, why not charge the 40 known swarmers?
Did I mention, the swarmers were non-white?
So we have the tools to do the job if there was real interest on the part of the authorities to act upon it.
A few years back New York City was in a similar situation. Tough on crime Rudy Giuliani became Mayor and insisted that the City of Police act on all crimes no matter big or small. The city soon shaped up when the culprits realized the free ride was over.
But jail is not always the answer either. Indeed it should be limited for those who commit violent crimes.
Stats show here in Canada that only 12.5% of inmates are violent. Nearly 50% are in for "property crimes".
Included in property crimes are B&Es which by their nature I would class as violent since those offenders are breaching the privacy of an individual's home.
But the bottomline here is that too many offenders are prison bound. Other methods of penalty need to be found with the result being less prisons not more.
So we have the tools and we have more than sufficient numbers of prisons.
I cannot imagine how the Tories Omnibus Bill can make things better but I will carefully watch it as it makes its way through Parliament and will let you know if I have any change of heart.
I do know, that the costs attached to this Bill will be steep and now does not appear to be the time to incur such added expenditure especially if the results are suspect.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
And then there is something as inoccuos as graffiti. It has run amuck in modern cities but here in Ottawa, the property owners are liable for court action if they do not remove the offending markings.
