OPPOSITION BLOCKING CRIME-FIGHTING LEGISLATION: NICHOLSON

Police Association Supports Tory Bill

Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats took turns accusing each
other of being soft on crime as the Harper government urged opposition
parties to support its latest attempt to toughen sentences for
drug-related activity. One day after the Liberals announced they would
no longer support the legislation, Bill S-10, adopted in the Senate,
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson staged a news conference with other
Tory MPs and the president of the Canadian Police Association,
accusing the opposition of blocking measures that would target drug
traffickers and organized crime.

"The bill that we have presented to Parliament is very specific,"
Nicholson said. "It sends out the correct message that if you're
getting into the grow-op business for the purposes of trafficking --
again, that distinction is sometimes lost on some my opponents to this
bill -- if you're into the business of trafficking, if you're bringing
drugs into this country, it's very specific as well. If you sell drugs
around a school, you're not going to like this bill."

Charles Momy, president of the association which represents 43,000
police members across the country, said the legislation would prevent
instances when criminals re-offend very quickly after getting out of a
short jail sentence.

"In simple terms, keep these criminals in jail longer and you take
away their opportunity to traffic drugs," Momy said. "It's that simple."

The Liberals had supported previous versions of the legislation that
was actually killed by the Harper government when it shut down
Parliament in December 2009.

But Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland suggested the current
bill, if passed into law, could cost billions in new investments for
expanded prison space, without actually discouraging organized crime
or rehabilitating criminals. Instead, he said it could cause an
increase in criminal activity for offences such as someone with a few
marijuana plants or Tylenol 3.

"The problem is when you put in people for six months, they get worse,
not better," said Holland. "You take a kid who had a minor problem,
you send him to prison and you create a major criminal."