TORY GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF STRANDING CONVICTS IN U.S.

The Conservative government has become the first in a decade to deny
Canadian citizens imprisoned in the United States the chance to serve
out their sentences in Canada.

Critics say this new trend reflects the personal political agenda of
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

Documents from the Correctional Service of Canada, the agency that
deals with international prisoner transfers, show that from 1997 to
2005, Ottawa never once denied an application to transfer a convict
from a U.S. to a Canadian prison.

In 2006, the year the federal Conservatives took power and Day was put
in charge of correctional services, five transfer requests were
denied, even though U.S. officials had approved them.

This year, as of June, 12 transfer requests already approved by the
U.S. had been turned down by Canada, while only two were approved.

In the five years before Day took charge of the agency, the government
approved an average of 38 transfers from U.S. prisons each year.

In a column published last November in the Penticton Western News, a
newspaper in his British Columbia riding, Day wrote of his disgust
with prison transfers for convicted drug dealers.

"B.C. dope dealers busted in the U.S. are demanding to be transferred
back to cozier Canadian jails and reduced prison times," he wrote.
"Memo to drug dealer: I'm no dope. ... Enjoy the U.S." John Conroy, a
B.C. defence lawyer who represents several Canadian convicts whose
transfers have been turned down, blames Day directly for the policy.

"Is Mr. Day acting in the public interest or because of a peculiar
attitude he has toward various offences?" Conroy asks.

Day's spokeswoman said the new policy is part of the Conservatives'
hard line on crime, something the party campaigned on in the last election.

"The previous Liberal government put criminals' rights first," Melisa
Leclerc said. "We do not ... We always put the security of Canadians
and their communities first."