TORY MPS UNHAPPY WITH SENATE CHANGES TO ANTI-CRIME BILL

Portage-Lisgar Member of Parliament Candice Hoeppner slammed the
Liberal-dominated Senate for making amendments to a Conservative
anti-crime bill.

Hoeppner said the amendments, made by the Senate's Legal and
Constitutional Affairs Committee, have weakened the bill and
undermined the intent of it.

"Our focus and our goal was to crack down on drug traffickers,"
Hoeppner said of Bill C-15 just prior to her annual Tea with the MP
event in Portage la Prairie Dec. 18.

Under the legislation, persons found guilty of trafficking who also
had previous drug convictions would have received a minimum one-year
prison term.

New amendments

With the new amendments of the Senate, mandatory terms would apply
only if the offenders had spent a year or more behind bars for their
previous conviction.

Hoeppner said the Conservative government aimed to target people who
sold drugs to children and the amendments - including taking away
mandatory jail time for anyone growing up to 200 marijuana plants -
would further weaken that aspect of it.

"As a mother, it bothers me," she said, accusing the Liberals of
being soft on crime.

Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament
for Provencher, lent his voice to the condemnation of the amendments.

"It's been before the Senate since last June! And now the Liberal
Senators have passed amendments, creating major loopholes and further
delaying this urgently-needed legislation," Toews said in a press release.

The legislation proposes mandatory prison sentences if the offence of
trafficking is carried out for organized crime purposes; or a weapon
or violence is involved; the drug is sold to youth; or the
trafficking offence takes place near a school or an area normally
frequented by youth.

A minimum sentence would also apply if the production of the illegal
drug constitutes a potential security, health or safety hazard to
children or a residential community.

In addition, under this legislation the maximum penalties for drug
production would increase from seven to 14 years. The mandatory
sentences contained in Bill C-15 do not apply to simple possession offences.

Liberal Senator Joan Fraser, chair of the Senate Legal and
Constitutional Affairs Committee, said the committee wanted to bring
some balance into the bill and in no way intended to weaken it.

"The purpose of the bill is to go after criminals and organized
crime," Fraser said, noting it was a well-intentioned bill.

She said with such stringent measures, such as jail time for someone
growing as little as five plants, it risked punishing people who may
be growing plants for personal use and didn't deserve the punishment.

"It risked scooping up more people right down at the bottom who were
not targeted," she said.

The Senate committee heard from 62 witnesses about the bill, both for
it and opposing it, before the 12-member committee voted in favour of
the amendments. Among those witnesses were experts in the field of
crime, members of the Canadian Bar Association and witnesses from the
United States, which is moving away from mandatory sentences, she said.

Of the 12 committee members, four are Conservative, one is an
independent and seven are Liberal, including Fraser. From the Senate,
the bill will now go back to the House of Commons where MPs will vote
on whether to accept the amendments or not.