TORIES DELIVER ON MANDATORY SENTENCES

Two Bills Get Tough on Gun-Related and Drug Crimes

OTTAWA - The federal government will start rolling out its
tough-on-crime agenda today, introducing a new law to put more people
in jail and keep them there longer if they commit drug, gang or gun
crimes or reoffend while on parole.

The government will also propose legislation to severely restrict
conditional sentences that allow some offenders to serve their time at
home.

The two bills comprise the centrepiece of Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's plan to overhaul Canada's criminal justice system.

Justice Minister Vic Toews said yesterday the legislation dealing with
guns will reflect the Conservatives' promise to impose new mandatory
prison terms ranging from five to 10 years. "I don't think what people
will see here will be any surprise," he said.

The election platform calls for 24 new or increased jail terms for
gun-related crimes, including five years for possession of a loaded
handgun and 10 years for robbery with a firearm.

Mr. Harper recently laid out a more expansive blueprint for the new
laws, which he said would include mandatory imprisonment for serious
drug trafficking, crimes committed while on parole and for violent and
repeat offenders to "help beat back the epidemic of guns, gangs and
drugs that is plaguing our streets."

The Conservatives set aside an undisclosed amount of money in the
budget to pay for more prison cells to support the plan.

Opposition parties have raised questions about the severity of the
measures, even suggesting they might not survive a Charter of Rights
challenge.

"Realistically, there is a real limit of what the Supreme Court is
going to tolerate," NDP justice critic Joe Comartin said. "The
suggestion is we'd probably be safe at five years and in extreme cases
push it to seven."

The success of the legislation, which Mr. Toews predicted will pass
quickly, depends on at least some support from the opposition parties.

One factor working in the government's favour is that no party wants
to be seen as opposing an anti-crime bill when there is public concern
across the country.

Mr. Harper has challenged the opposition parties to come
onside.

"Our clear agenda to crack down on crime will force the Liberals and
others to take a stand," he said in a recent speech. He also called on
Canadians to lobby their MPs to vote for the anti-crime package.

There are already 20 mandatory jail terms, ranging from one to four
years, for gun-related crimes in the Criminal Code, imposed a decade
ago as part of Liberal gun-control laws. Automatic jail sentences also
apply to a handful of other crimes, including murder.

Both the Liberals and the New Democrats say they will not back
legislation that is not accompanied by community-based crime
prevention programs. The budget set aside $20-million over two years
to discourage young people from a life of crime, which falls short of
the amounts proposed by the Liberals and NDP.

Mandatory minimum sentences are controversial because they take away
flexibility for judges to impose sentences as they see fit.
Criminologists contend such sentences are expensive and do not reduce
crime.

Mandatory prison terms for drug trafficking alone could put thousands
more prisoners into the federal system, which currently houses 12,400
inmates at an estimated $82,000 each per year.

For the bill to end conditional sentences, a lot of the jail costs
would likely have to be covered by the provinces because house arrest
is only available for sentences of less than two years, which are
always served in jails rather than federal prisons.

The Conservatives have said they would ban conditional sentences for
crimes against children and for certain crimes involving violence,
sex, drugs, weapons or impaired driving.