RETHINK CRIME BILL

With appropriate "sober second thought," the Senate has amended a
crime bill that would have imposed mandatory minimum prison sentences
on people convicted of growing as few as five marijuana plants. By
voting this week to return some discretion to judges in drug cases,
the senators have chosen to base changes in our criminal laws on
evidence rather than politics.

Bill C-15 was originally passed by the House of Commons with the
support of both the governing Conservatives and the opposition
Liberals - the latter because they were worried about being painted as
"soft on crime" by the former.

If the bill passes third reading in the Senate as amended - which is
still uncertain - it will be sent back to the House of Commons for
reconsideration. The Liberals should take the opportunity to rethink
their position and support the Senate's amendments, which improve a
deeply flawed law.

During committee hearings, the government was not able to offer any
evidence to support its claims that Bill C-15 would make our streets
safer. There is, however, a great deal of evidence to the contrary.

The Americans have pioneered mandatory minimum sentences as a
deterrent to crime. Does anyone think their streets are safer? Tougher
sentencing laws in the United States have led to an astronomical
increase in incarceration of drug dealers and addicts, at great cost
to the American taxpayer. As a result, some American states are taking
steps to repeal these laws, just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's
government is trying to bring them to Canada.

For Harper and the Conservatives, crime is a wedge issue that can be
mined for political gain. And, unfortunately, the Liberals have been
cowed into submission. In the end, Canadians won't thank either party
for laws that don't reduce crime but stuff prisons with non-violent
offenders at enormous expense to the taxpayer.