TOUGH ON CRIME, SHORT ON FACTS

Last week, I wrote a column on how the right-wing Tea Party movement
in the United States is hijacking the Republican Party, moving it
further to the right into a terrain where ideology takes precedence
over fact, thus the title of my column, "When ideology trumps facts."

This ideology over fact trend is not solely an American phenomenon; it
is happening right here in Canada with the Harper Conservatives.

Ideology over facts in the Conservative government has been seen with
the abolition of the long form census requirement, something that will
greatly hinder data gathering, and with cutbacks to Environment Canada
which performs important air quality monitoring services. Maybe this
latter one reflects, as well, a nod to global warming deniers.

Prime Minister Harper, with a newly minted majority government, has
much greater ability to implement his agenda, not needing to bargain
or compromise with opposition parties. This is seen with the
government's omnibus crime bill, which has the benign-sounding name of
The Safe Streets and Communities Act, which in many cases reintroduces
measures from the previous Parliament disregarding most opposition
amendments. Thus there is more room for a more stridently
neo-conservative agenda, something clearly evident in this bill.

Already Conservatives have embarked on building more prisons, even
while cancelling a prison farm program (an important rehabilitative
program). Building more prisons is illogical, considering that crime
rates have declined over the past 20 years, an especially baffling
move given the current recession and scarce financial resources.

The stricter penalties contained in the omnibus bill, including
imposing and raising minimum penalties for a range of offences, would
send more people to jail for longer periods . This is a fiscally
irresponsible move, one that reflects authoritarian tendencies,
feeding on fears about crime and promoting increased incarcerations
even though there is no evidence that this would reduce crime.

It's a neo-conservative tough on crime approach without regards to
facts.

CNN host Fareed Zakaria has highlighted, via twitter, that the United
States, which employs the "tough on crime" focus on incarcerations,
has less than five per cent of the world's population yet almost
one-quarter of the world's inmates. Despite this, inner cities such as
Detroit and Saint Louis continue to be unsafe, in large part because
of structural problems, such as cycles of multi-generational poverty
and the hopelessness that it creates, have not been adequately addressed.

Among concerning measures in the omnibus bill are those dealing with
young offenders. Child and youth advocates across Canada have
expressed concerns about the criminalization of youth through these
measures, since more young people will be sentenced as adults and
publication bans on some young offenders will be allowed to be lifted.

The advocate for British Columbia raised concerns that this could
criminalize these youth, thereby increasing chances of re-offence.
This is a particular concern as prisons act as "universities of
crime." Sending these youth to prison could harden them into a life of
crime.

Christian Whalen, acting Child and Youth Advocate in New Brunswick,
raised concerns about youth being put in prisons in situations where
clinical intervention - for example, for mental health issues - are
needed.

Also worrisome are provisions in the bill on drug trafficking, which
represent a failed "war on drugs" approach. This includes mandatory
jail sentences for "serious drug offences," including six months in
jail for growing six marijuana plants and two years for selling
marijuana to someone under eighteen. Production of cannabis oil and
resin would bring a year and a half in prison.

Someone in their late teens or early twenties, growing a few marijuana
plants, could be sent to prison.

This also points to a startling hypocrisy, as it is hard to believe
that there are not more than a few Conservative MPs who tried
marijuana in their youth. This echoes the kind of phoney morality seen
in the United States.

Another example of this moralism is with regards to strippers, with
new powers to immigration officers to deny visas to "foreign
strippers." Again, how many Conservative MPs or staffers have been to
a strip club?

Meanwhile, in all this, a true tackling of the root causes of crime is
neglected, including tackling issues of poverty, mental health, and
drug addiction.

The disregard for reality in favour of ideology, characteristic of the
Tea Party-hijacked Republican Party in the United States, is also
becoming a characteristic of the Conservative Party of Canada.