OPPAL'S PROPOSAL LAUGHABLY UNREALISTIC

With Public Confidence In The Justice System Failing, It's No Wonder
He's Trying To Build Trust

Attorney-General Wally Oppal was back on the hustings the day after
the B.C. budget was unveiled, telling yet another audience he has a
solution to the crime that plagues us.

It's a continuing PR campaign for the former B.C. Court of Appeal
judge because the provincial legal system is tarnished -- I think in
a large part as a result of the severe cutbacks and changes made by
the Liberals during their first term.

British Columbians today, according to the A-G's ministry, are split
down the middle when it comes to having a great deal or quite a lot
of confidence in the system: Half do, half don't.

Look at other indicators: Only 11 per cent of people 15 years and
older believe the courts do a good job of providing justice
expeditiously, only 16 per cent believe they help victims, only 22
per cent believe they get the verdict right and 43 per cent believe
they ensure a fair trial.

No wonder Oppal is out there sticking his finger in the dike of public trust.

I think those are big cracks he's trying to fill -- we are witnessing
today the erosion of public confidence in the legal system that
should concern all of us.

When you look at some of the numbers, I think you can understand why:
The average family hearing takes 113 days from inception to
disposition, a traffic case on average 186 days, adult and youth
criminal cases 170 days, small claims actions 303 days.

I don't think the rookie Oppal has been in government long enough to
have figured out what he should be doing to address the problems. The
learning curve is a big one.

His attempt for instance to say you and I have to get more involved I
think is laughable -- put up your hand if you've got free time to
spend sitting in meetings listening to some offender's tale of woe or
your precious time away from work to supervise or invent a community
service project. Maybe I could squeeze it in between getting my son
to hockey, soccer, baseball, swimming . . . .

Let's get real.

Taxpayers expect miscreants to end up in jail, shamed into going
straight or at least supervised by the system for the terms of their
punishment.

I think the idea we're going to be happy with more hugging and
community involvement is hoary.

Similarly, I'm not sure about the other big part of Oppal's answer,
which is community courts -- a special system pioneered in the U.S.
and elsewhere in Canada for pliant offenders involved in petty theft,
vandalism and small-time crime.

Streamlined for those who play ball, community courts meld judicial
penalties with mandatory addiction counselling and treatment and
concentrated social services. Cities from New York to Portland have
seen dramatic improvement in crime suppression and neighbourhood
health by using such an approach.

It's a solution supported by the justice task force committee on
street crime, which included a spectrum of stakeholders such as
judges, cops, mental-health workers, lawyers and others.

The reason is simple -- statistics show nine out of 10 property
crimes are drug-related, most committed by recalcitrant recidivists
who inevitably are addicts. Get their lives in order for them, and
they'll stop doing stupid things in your neighbourhood.

Trouble is, you won't find much in this week's budget to pay for such
an initiative -- which requires expensive drug rehabilitation
programs and social support to work properly.

When Oppal was asked at the Victoria Chamber of Commerce this week
about a time-line for community courts, he said it would probably
take him six months to come up with one.

And at least another six months after that to lobby Treasury Board to
start providing the funding required for success.

As I said, it's a steep learning curve and Oppal's clearly got a way to go.