MINISTER HAS SWITCHED SIDES ON SENTENCING

Rob Nicholson Was Vice-Chairman Of A 1988 Parliamentary Committee That
Opposed Fixed Sentences

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, one of Canada's most vocal champions
of fixed minimum prison sentences, once opposed the idea of removing
discretion for judges to sentence as they see fit.

As a Tory backbencher in 1988, Nicholson was vice-chairman of a
parliamentary committee that rejected the expansion of automatic
incarceration, asserting that it doesn't work, overcrowds jails and
takes too hefty of a social and financial toll.

The sweeping report on sentencing, based on a yearlong study of the
criminal justice system, concluded that judges should follow
guidelines, but that "each case should be decided on its own facts."

Two decades later, mandatory minimum jail terms are central to the
Harper government's law-and-order agenda.

Nicholson, as justice minister for the last three years, has
aggressively pushed for automatic incarceration for selling drugs,
growing marijuana, white-collar crime and offences involving guns.

He has repeatedly accused his political opponents of being soft on
crime for challenging his get-tough approach.

Most recently, he blasted the Senate when it amended a key bill
designed to impose automatic prison terms for a variety of
drug-related crimes, by redrafting a component that would jail pot
growers who cultivate as few as five plants.

The bill died when Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended Parliament
in late December, but Nicholson said last week he will revive his
proposed legislation.

Nicholson's press secretary, Pamela Stephens, said that times have
changed since the 1988 report and the government's plans for mandatory
minimums have "evolved" to reflect society's demand for tougher
penalties for serious crimes.

"I can't get into a debate about minimum penalties, but as a
government we believe that it is the role of the legislators to
reflect the citizens who elected them, and it is the role of the
legislator to give guidance on maximum penalties as well as minimum
penalties," Stephens said.

Drug trafficking, for instance, is now fuelled by organized crime and
therefore demands harsh penalties, she said.

Stephens pointed out that the previous Liberal government also created
many mandatory minimum sentences and the Conservatives have been
building on that list, which now stands at 43. New Democrat Libby
Davies said Nicholson's apparent change shows that the Harper
Conservatives are more ideologically driven on crime than were the
former Tories.

"I think it does show very much a difference, between the old
Conservatives and today's Conservatives, which are hell bent on this
ideological agenda of being tough on crime," said Davies, who strongly
opposes minimum prison terms for drug crimes.

"This is all that Stephen Harper's got and they have wrapped
themselves in that and they have played on people's fear."

The vast majority of witnesses who appeared at Senate and House of
Commons committee hearings on Nicholson's drug-sentencing bill
lambasted mandatory minimums.

Several American states have retreated from mandatory minimum
sentences for drug crimes in recent years, amid mounting evidence they
have a disproportionate effect on young people, visible minorities and
the poor, yet haven't made a difference in curtailing the drug trade.

At the time of the 1988 report, minimum mandatory terms existed in the
Criminal Code for murder, treason, drunk driving causing injury or
death and the more minor offence of bookmaking. The justice committee
22 years ago opted against wider expansion, as recommended a year
earlier by a sentencing commission. The committee recommended only
violent sexual assault carry a term of at least 10 years. The former
Liberal government dramatically increased the list, imposing fixed
incarceration terms for a variety of gun-related crimes, as part of
its 1995 gun-control package, and later, for nine child exploitation
crimes.