ARGUING AGAINST CRIME BILL

On Friday Nov. 25, Oakville MP Terence Young met with me to discuss
the Omnibus Crime Bill: Bill C-10, the Safer Streets and Communities Act.

On one fundamental point, Mr. Young and I agreed: we want a safer
community for our children in which dangerous, violent offenders are
locked up. We did not agree about the potential C-10 has for creating
that safer Canada. Nor did we agree on the potential costs of the
bill to taxpayers.

Mr. Young's letter to The Oakville Beaver dated Nov. 24, clearly
outlined the objective of the bill: to elevate victim's rights by
ensuring more offenders are subjected to mandatory minimum sentences
(MMS). He also cited some statistics about certain increased crime
rates in Canada since the '60s.

But the facts are that, "In 2010, police-reported crime in Canada
continued on its downward trend. Both the volume and severity of
crime fell from the previous year, down five per cent and six per
cent, respectively." (Statistics Canada, July 2010)

So it is unclear why the government feels the urgent need to change
course in our approach to criminal justice, particularly when the
Canada Bar Association (with its membership of 37,000 lawyers across
Canada) and many other criminal justice and legal experts are warning
that this approach is a very expensive mistake that will not result
in safer communities.

When Mr. Young and I met, he was unable to provide any empirical
evidence to indicate this bill follows proven methods to deal with or
prevent crime in an effective, cost-efficient manner.

I asked if Mr. Young was concerned that states such as Texas tried
this same MMS approach and found it ineffective and expensive. He
noted Texas is very different from Canada because they imprison so
many more people than we do.

Texans tried the tough-on-crime approach but found it to be tough on
taxpayers. Now that Texans have decided to try more conditional
sentencing and community-based drug treatment, they have reduced the
cost of dealing with crime by nine per cent and the crime rate by 14 per cent.

More concerning to me was Mr. Young indicated Canada has a national
mental health strategy. It does not.

We are the only G8 country without such a strategy. The Canadian
Mental Health Association is about to release a final report on such
a strategy, in time for the health accord negotiations. The CMHA does
not endorse the Crime Bill.

Experts, governments and the public are well aware of the connection
between mental health, addiction and crime. Investing in crime
prevention measures, including a co-ordinated strategy to deal with
mental illness and addiction will prevent serious crimes. Study after
study proves it.

Oakvillians are striving to make our community the most livable place
in Canada, but we cannot easily access the mental health supports we
need to deal with depression, personality disorders, youth issues and
the like. As a family law lawyer I know this for a fact. I see it all the time.

Serious crimes are appalling. As parents we have every right to be
concerned when one in four of our female students graduate from
university after being victim to a serious sexual assault. But
criminal justice and community safety experts recommend the
government invest our tax dollars on measures that really work.

A $10,000 investment in an enhanced early mental health intervention
system in our schools and communities can prevent a person from
resorting to substance abuse and deterioration into a life of serious
violent crime. It will also save taxpayers the $100,000 cost of
incarcerating that person later on.

Facts and experience say if Ottawa matched every dollar for prisons
for locking up young men with another dollar for prevention and
victim rights to create better futures for disadvantaged young men,
Canada would be one of the safest countries.

The result: true savings in both taxpayer dollars and in the
unaccountable emotional cost of crime and punishment. Ultimately, the
best way to elevate victim's rights is to ensure they don't become
victims in the first place.

Susan Berry, LL.B., Oakville