'AGENDA FOR CRIME REFORM'

The Conservative government's omnibus crime legislation, due "within
100 days," will mark a watershed moment in Canadian legal history,
imposing many controversial changes to how police and the courts
operate, experts say.

The bill is sweeping in scale and scope: It is expected to usher new
mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes -growing five marijuana
plants to sell the drug would automatically bring six months in jail
- -and for certain sexual offences against children. It will expand
police powers online without court orders, reintroduce controversial
aspects of the Anti-Terrorism Act that expired in 2007, end house
arrest for serious crimes and impact young offenders and their privacy.

"This bundle of crime legislation represents the most comprehensive
agenda for crime reform since the Criminal Code was introduced," said
Steven Skurka, a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer.

The omnibus legislation -which is expected to combine upward of a
dozen bills, some of which failed to pass Parliament under
minority-government rule -is one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's
top priorities when Parliament resumes June 2. He promised during the
election campaign to pass the bill within his government's first 100
sitting days, and it is likely to whiz through the House of Commons
and the Senate now that both are firmly under Tory control.

"We remain unwavering in our commitment to fighting crime and
protecting Canadians so that our communities are safe places for
people to live, raise their families and do business," said Pamela
Stephens, spokesperson for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. "We will be
bringing forward comprehensive tackling-crime legislation to be passed
within 100 days. Further details will be announced in due course."

The Liberals, until recently the Official Opposition, claim crime has
fallen in volume and severity in the past few years, and that the
legislation simply goes too far. They argued that the United States,
with its "mega prisons," is suffering from the effects of this sort of
tough-on-crime legislation.

Among the more controversial aspects of the bundle is mandatory
minimum sentences. Minimum sentences are hardly new to the Criminal
Code, and they are hardly partisan -the previous Liberal government
imposed mandatory minimums on several child-exploitation offences. But
the Conservative omnibus bill will dramatically expand them, limiting
judicial discretion to levels unseen before.

Mark Hecht, a law professor at the University of Sherbrooke and senior
legal counsel for child advocacy group Beyond Borders, said his group
supports all of the Conservative government's proposals relating to
child sex-offences, including mandatory minimum sentences. "The
judiciary is consistently handing out sentences that are far too low
for the crimes," he said. "The only way to correct that -in the short
term at least -is to impose mandatory minimums."

The Conservatives have passed several significant crime bills since
taking power in 2006, and they have already announced expansions to
the prison system to accommodate increased incarceration rates.
Correctional Service Canada says existing legislation translates to a
need for 2,700 new spaces at a cost of $2-billion. Parliamentary
Budget Officer Kevin Page thinks that number is more like 4,200
prisoners at a total cost of closer to $5-billion -raising annual
prison expenditure to $9.3-billion by 2015-2016.

"The legislation is more based on punishment than prevention, and
that's dramatically new," said Errol Mendes, a professor of
constitutional and international law at the University of Ottawa.
"It's one of the most punishment-focused [agendas] in Canadian history."