VANCOUVER TOO SOFT ON CRIME, FEDERAL JUSTICE MINISTER SAYS

VANCOUVER - The federal Justice Minister portrayed Vancouver
yesterday as a city with a serious crime problem because of lenient
judges.

"People like to come here because the weather is fine and the
sentences are low," Vic Toews joked during a warmly received luncheon
speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade. The former Manitoba
attorney-general also suggested that individuals who rob a bank in his
home province would likely flee to this region to "get house arrest"
in British Columbia.

Mr. Toews said the "criminal justice agenda" under Prime Minister
Stephen Harper will include additional funds for the RCMP. In
responding to a question from the business crowd, Mr. Toews also
warned that organized-crime groups are joining forces with terrorists,
although he did not provide any specific information.

"Serious crime means serious time," Mr. Toews stressed, repeating the
slogan used when the government announced plans to eliminate
conditional sentences for any offence that carries a maximum penalty
of more than 10 years.

Currently, conditional sentences can be imposed when judges determine
that the appropriate jail term would be less than two years for a
crime with a maximum sentence that is longer.

Mr. Toews declined to answer yesterday how public safety would be
improved by requiring offenders who might normally receive a
conditional sentence to be held in custody in provincial jails for
terms of less than two years.

"This is vote-grabbing in a very crass way," suggested Richard Fowler,
a Vancouver defence lawyer and B.C. representative on the Canadian
Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers. He noted that the federal
government can reap the political benefit of appearing "tough on
crime," but it will be the provinces that will incur additional costs.
More people will be held in custody in provincial jails and more cases
will go to trial because defendants would have less incentive to agree
to a plea bargain.

The defence lawyer said the federal government should provide more
money to the provinces to increase supervision of conditional
sentences, and to ensure that offenders perform meaningful community
service.

Mr. Toews said yesterday that while he is not opposed to spending on
social programs as part of a crime-prevention strategy, "unless we get
the gunmen and drug dealers off the street, it will be all for naught."

"It has been pointed out to me" that the cost of a single drug addict
on the streets of Vancouver is "$1,000 per day in stolen property,"
Mr. Toews said. "That is $365,000 per year. Crack addicts don't take
holidays."

He referred to the sharp reduction in the homicide rate in New York
City in the past 15 years as a model for Canada, with a focus on
increased resources for law enforcement. He spoke of an e-mail he
received from a Vancouver resident who said he hopes the streets in
the city will one day be as safe as New York.

He also disputed statistical data that the crime rate is steadily
declining in Canada. He said the violent-crime rate is comparable with
U.S. cities, and told the Board of Trade audience that Vancouver has
the highest property-crime rate in North America, followed by Winnipeg.

In fact, Regina has the highest property-crime rate in Canada,
followed by Abbotsford and then Vancouver. Winnipeg is fifth,
according to Statistics Canada. While property-crime rates in
Vancouver are above those of many U.S. cities, the murder rate is
significantly lower and half that of New York, for example.

Statistics released by the Vancouver Police Department, which has had
a nearly 15-per-cent budget increase in the past three years, indicate
that violent crime is not rising.

Mr. Fowler described the government's insistence that communities in
Canada are increasingly unsafe as "intellectually dishonest," yet
effective politically. "It is a debate based on a fiction. Politics is
about dealing with public perception, not the reality. The realities
don't lead to votes."