OTTAWA PREPARING TO LAUNCH LAWS THAT GET TOUGH ON CRIME

OTTAWA -- The Conservative government is proceeding at full speed
with its ambitious law-and-order agenda, with plans in the coming
months to introduce bills to put more people in jail for drug-related
crimes, create a national victim's ombudsman, and crack down on youth crime.

In an interview Friday, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson dispelled
public musings that the Conservatives, by appointing him to the
high-profile post to replace hardliner Vic Toews, are trying to put a
more gentle face on their justice plans.

Nicholson insisted he is anything but "soft on crime, that he
believes wholeheartedly in every element of his government's
initiatives, and that a bill introduced last year to raise the age of
sexual consent is "an idea whose time has come."

"I'm very determined that the agenda that we ran on in the 2006
election is good for this country," he said in his Parliament Hill
office, "and I think it's what Canadians want and we will not be
diverted from that."

As the former House leader responsible for negotiating with the other
parties in the minority government, Nicholson said his immediate
priority is to "stick handle" nine pieces of justice legislation,
which have already been introduced, into passage.

His two key concerns, he said, are flagship bills to impose stiffer
mandatory jail terms for a variety of crimes committed with firearms
and to raise the age of sexual consent to 16 from the current 14.

But he said he is also proceeding with at least three other pieces of
legislation in the government's current mandate, although he would
not commit to a time frame.

In last year's federal election campaign, the Conservatives promised
to send everyone to prison for at least two years if they are
convicted of trafficking drugs such as heroin, cocaine and crystal meth.

The mandatory prison terms would also apply to offences involving
bulk amounts of marijuana and hashish.

"I'm not going to scoop myself on when we announce the bill but it
will be consistent with what we said in the last general election,"
Nicholson said.

The stiffer sentences will be included in a long-promised national
drug strategy that will also include health and public security initiatives.

Critics, including opposition MP's, have complained that minimum
terms for drug crimes, which have flooded jails in the United States,
amount to cruel and unusual punishment that would not survive a
Charter of Rights challenge.

On youth crime, Nicholson said he also intends to proceed with
election commitments.

The Conservative platform, among other things, pledged to
automatically impose adult sentences on teens over age 13 who commit
serious violent crimes.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promoted Nicholson to the highly
charged justice portfolio in January, a move that was widely viewed
as shrewd because of his skills as a negotiator at a time when the
government is trying to shepherd a heavy agenda through Parliament.

Also, Nicholson is an Ontario MP, putting him in a position of
potentially having more appeal in Central Canada than did Toews, a
Manitoban with a reputation as too militant on the law-and-order front.

Nicholson was an MP in the Progressive Conservative government of
Brian Mulroney.

He was also a junior minister in the short-lived Kim Campbell
government but was defeated in the Liberal sweep of 1993.