THE IDEOLOGY AND THE REALITY OF LAW AND ORDER

"This Is Not the End; This Is Just the Beginning of Our Efforts In
This Regard," Said Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson In
Introducing the Conservative Government'S New Tough-On-Crime
Legislation.

Given the inherent flaws of this bill, one shudders to think what the
end will be.

There are certainly commendable measures proposed in the legislation,
pointedly the first bill introduced by the government in this fall
sitting of Parliament. Titled the Safe Streets and Communities Act, it
is actually a compilation of nine bills previously introduced by the
government that failed to pass when the Conservatives formed only a
minority administration.

However, even advisable measures are in some instances inadvisedly
applied. For example, it is not a bad idea to end what has become an
overuse of house-arrest penalties for perpetrators of violent crimes.
But the provision would also apply to those who commit non-violent
offences such as car theft and break and enter, even though prison
time in some cases might not be the optimal penalty.

Tougher penalties for drug trafficking could prove a benefit to
society, but it is hard to envisage how automatic jail time for anyone
caught growing as few as six marijuana plants will make our streets
any safer. If anything, it is more likely to benefit big-time dealers
by discouraging people growing their own for their own
consumption.

The proposal to hold dangerous and out of-control young people in
custody prior to trial for their offences is widely applauded,
including by some critics of the Conservative approach. But under the
terms of the legislation, many young people who are of minimal danger
to society would wind up in jail - with the likelihood of emerging
more dangerous than they were going in, after exposure to hardened
criminals in detention.

The bill's insistence on mandatory sentences, including jail time for
relatively minor crimes, suggests a distrust of the Canadian justice
system and the wisdom of its judges in particular. Surely judges are
more qualified to assess the circumstances of a given case than are
parliamentarians, and should have discretionary leeway in handing down
sentences. Manifestly inappropriate sentences can always be appealed.
The Conservative approach to dealing with crime also fails to take
into account societal factors, such as poverty, family breakdowns and
learning difficulties, that foster criminal behaviour. Such factors
are particularly rife among the aboriginal population that is hugely
overrepresented in the country's prison population. The bill's
emphasis is on punishment, whose deterrent value is disputable, as
opposed to rehabilitation, which is more effective and less expensive
in the long run in dealing with criminality.

The government's obsession with crime comes at a time when crime rates
are in steady decline. True, certain crimes are bucking the general
downward trend, but they could be better dealt with by specific
measures, not a sledgehammer bill like the one proposed. The
government's approach is also clearly modelled on U.S. methods that
favour heavy prison sentences as a rule even in cases of relatively
minor crime.

Yet even some conservative U.S. constituencies are reconsidering this
approach as they are faced with unmanageable and unaffordable prison
systems.

It is also disturbing that while the crime fighting initiative will
result in a substantial increase in the nation's prison population,
and require the building of new jails, the government is being cagey
about revealing the projected cost of its measures at a time when the
federal budget is in deficit. If the government has no idea what the
cost will be, it is being foolish in its approach. If it knows and is
not telling us, it is being devious.

It is true that the Conservatives were open about their intentions in
this respect before and during the election campaign and can now ram
through the legislation with their parliamentary majority. But it
should also be noted that while the Conservatives have a majority of
parliamentary seats, a majority of Canadians - slightly more than 60
per cent - voted for parties that oppose these measures.

When the matter of the steadily falling crime rate was raised, the
justice minister said the government is not governing on the basis of
statistics. But in this case it could be expected to govern on the
basis of common sense rather than law-and-order ideology.