TORY CALLS OUT ATAMANENKO

Federal Politics: Southern Interior MP mixes it up with Cariboo MP
over whether convicted cocaine smuggler should be allowed to serve his
time in Canada

Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko is being criticized for
supporting convicted drug smuggler Perley Holmes' bid to serve his
eight-year sentence in a Canadian jail, a bid that the Canadian
Minister of Public Safety Peter Van Loan denied.

Holmes was the business manager of the Ironworkers Union Local 97 in
Burnaby before his arrest as he attempted to cross into B.C. east of
Osoyoos with backpacks containing 57 kilos of cocaine.

Conservative MP for Cariboo Prince George Dick Harris said in a press
release that Atamanenko's support for Holmes' transfer is "an affront
to law abiding citizens. Holmes had a role in helping to feed drug
addictions in Canada and making money from it. The RCMP found 43
weapons, including six handguns and an assault rifle, at Mr. Holmes
residence."

The NDP caucus member quickly shot back.

"I think it's understandable that [Mr. Harris] wants to make people
pay for their crimes. I'm in agreement with that," Atamanenko told the
Grand Forks Gazette. "Mr. Holmes made his mistake, and he's serving
his debt to society. The point is we have an agreement with the United
States and it allows for prisoner transfers."

In an interview with the Gazette, Harris held his line against his
Ottawa opponent.

"I can't imagine anybody conjuring up any sympathy for someone that's
caught trying to smuggle 57 kilos of cocaine into Canada," Harris
said. "I don't have a lot of sympathy for that. He was apprehended in
the United States. This was not just an off-chance that he was doing
this as it turns out, and he knew the risks very well what he was doing."

Atamanenko said that Canadian justice is different than American
justice.

"There is a much better chance of rehabilitation and reintegration
into society if he is in our system. If he's down there, he's not
going to have the same access to programs because they're strapped for
cash, it's a private system, and foreign prisoners are treated
differently than local prisoners. I think [Canadian] society would
benefit if he were in our prison system because ultimately our goal is
to get him back as a productive member of our society."

Harris' response to Atamanenko's concerns were brief.

"My remark would be perhaps Mr. Holmes should have tried a little
rehabilitation before he got into this very serious criminal activity."

Atamanenko was not surprised by the hard line approach of
Harris.

"This whole philosophy of the Conservatives," Atamanenko said, "is
that we have to punish, punish, punish, following what the Americans
have done, and yet we're seeing that the recidivism rate is higher
there. They build more jails; they privatize jails. It's not a model
we should be following; there are lots better models in the world."

Mark Mauer, director of the non-profit Sentencing Project, wrote in a
report to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, "The U.S. rate
of incarceration of 702 inmates per 100,000 population represents not
only a record high, but situates this nation as the world leader in
its use of imprisonment. For comparative purposes, the U.S. now locks
up its citizens at a rate 5-8 times that of the industrialized nations
to which we are most similar, Canada and (those of) Western Europe."

"Lives are taken on a daily basis by this drug, whether its killing or
whether people are simply losing control of their lives," Harris said.
"The consequences of drug addiction are absolutely tragic."