JUSTICE MINISTER PITCHES CRIME BILL

SAINT JOHN - Canada's Criminal Code is outdated and needs to be
modernized and Bill C-10 and other proposed new laws are part of that
process, says federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

"It updates the Criminal Code so that it reflects what's actually
happening," he told the Saint John Law Society on Thursday night.

Nicholson was an invited guest at a fundraising dinner for the law
society as the organization raises money for a new stained glass
window it has commissioned for the city's new courthouse.

During a short, but at times entertaining speech, the justice
minister touched on many legislative changes contained in Bill C-10
without addressing the controversial proposed new legislation directly.

Introduced on Sept. 20, the so-called Safe Streets and Communities
Act is an omnibus legislation that combines nine bills the
Conservative government failed to pass over the five years it had a
minority in Parliament. It includes measures to toughen rules for
violent youth and add mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes,
including drug and sex crimes.

The proposed legislation is now before the Justice and Human Rights Committee.

"This is the direction we have to go," the minister said.

Nicholson, who is a trained lawyer, specifically pointed to the need
to get tough on sex offenders who prey on children, organized crime
and drug trafficking.

He stressed how more stringent drug laws aren't designed to go after
someone who is "experimenting on a Saturday night or some
happy-go-lucky guy who has got six plants in the kitchen.

"That's not what we're going after - the bill is very specific," he
said. "We're going after people who bring drugs into this country.
I've been told this is part of organized crime."

Part of the purpose of making these changes, Nicholson said, is to
help "get the message out that we don't want people to get involved
in crime of if they are involved in crime, to get out."

He said other antiquated parts of the Criminal Code of Canada,
including the section on wire taps, is "stuck" in 1950s technology.

"Law enforcement agencies tell me that the criminals just don't
telephone each other anymore and they said they hardly ever send a
telegram anymore," he said, with a chuckle.

Nicholson said though there is a section dealing with the theft of a
cow, there is nothing to address the theft of an automobile.

Even as a House of Commons committee began a clause-by-clause review
of Bill C-10 this week, opposition MPs again stressed their
objections to the speed with which it is being pushed through Parliament.

Though New Brunswick has said it supports the crime bill, other
provincial justice ministers across the country have said they're
worried about how they will pay for extra jail, court and policing
costs associated with enforcing the proposed law.

To that, Nicholson has said the provinces already receive money for
justice systems in the form of transfer payments from Ottawa.

Many of Canada's lawyers and judges through the Canadian Bar
Association have told Nicholson that the country's courts and prisons
would only end up getting clogged with the mentally ill and society's
most vulnerable individuals if the law is passed.

The Saint John Law Society hasn't taken an official stance on the
controversial new bill.

But society president Chris Titus said there have been concerns
raised across the country about funding and resources.

"We have a general concern, but we are certainly open to discussing
it and trying to work our way through it," he said.