TORIES UNVEIL CRIME CRACKDOWN PLAN

New Legislation Centrepiece Of Justice System Overhaul

The Conservative government will start rolling out its tough-on-crime
agenda today by introducing a 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 are 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 government's promise in the recent
election campaign to impose new mandatory prison terms for
gun-related crimes 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,
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 also 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 this
week's budget to pay for more prison cells to support its plan.

The federal opposition parties, while mindful of a growing problem in
Canadian cities with guns and gangs, have sent signals the
Conservative measures are too stiff to support.

Furthermore, there are concerns they will not survive a Charter of
Rights court challenge on the grounds that they are too excessive for
the crime.

"Realistically, there is a real limit of what the Supreme Court is
going to tolerate," said NDP justice critic Joe Comartin. "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, who control the minority Parliament.

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

Mr. Harper, in a speech two weeks ago in Winnipeg, issued a bold
challenge to the opposition parties to come onside.

"Our clear agenda to crack down on crime will force the Liberals and
others to take a stand."

Mr. Harper also called on Canadians to lobby their MPs to vote for
the anti-crime package.

Mr. Comartin said the NDP will vote against any bill that calls for
minimum mandatory sentences for drug-related crime "because they don't work."

There are already 20 automatic jail or prison terms of up to four
years for gun-related crimes in the Criminal Code, ranging from one
to four years, imposed a decade ago as part of the Liberal
gun-control laws. Automatic prison sentences also exist for 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 lives of crime, which falls short of
the amounts proposed by the Liberals and NDP.

Minimum mandatory sentences are controversial because they take away
flexibility for judges to impose sentences as they see fit.

"I'm not a huge fan of minimum mandatories because you take away
discretion from the court, which is appropriate sometimes to tailor a
sentence to a particular kind of crime," said Steve Sullivan,
president of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime.

Moreover, criminologists contend that minimum mandatory penalties are
expensive and they do nothing to reduce crime.

Mandatory prison terms for drug trafficking alone could put thousands
more prisoners in 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
certain crimes involving violence, sex, drugs, weapons or impaired
driving, and for crimes committed against children.