IT'S NO TIME FOR SILENCE

Contrary to the politically correct bafflegab from too many
politicians and the media commentariat in recent days, now is exactly
the time we should be talking about reforming Canada's lax criminal
justice system.

Ever since a gun-toting madman murdered four young RCMP constables in
cold blood last week before taking his own life, the cry from our
chattering classes has been relentless.

Now is not the time, we're told, to discuss issues like cracking down
on marijuana grow-ops, or scrapping the useless federal gun registry,
or fixing systemic problems in our justice system that allowed a
violent bully and sex offender like James Roszko to terrorize a small
town for years.

After initially making some comments about the feds being ready to
look at toughening laws against grow-ops and giving the police more
resources, Deputy PM Anne McLellan, who is also public safety
minister, said it was time to put such issues aside for now and mourn
the dead officers.

Asked for comments on the Roszko killings in the context of such
things as the Liberals' bid to decriminalize marijuana -- given police
found a grow op on Roszko's farm -- Conservative Leader Stephen Harper
said "we can't just run out on the basis of a single tragedy and make
up a bunch of laws."

What nonsense -- from both politicians. That Canadians mourn the
deaths of these officers goes without saying. But the way to honour
them is to do all we can to minimize the risks faced by both police
and civilians in future.

The problem with the Liberals is that they don't want to talk
seriously about cracking down on crime at any time.

As for Harper, surely he knows no one who is serious about justice
reform wants to "make up a bunch of laws on the basis of a single tragedy."

But millions of Canadians are rightly asking how many tragedies it
will take before the feds establish mandatory minimum sentences for
the operators of grow-ops, toughen parole laws and scrap the useless
gun registry while transferring all that wasted money into front-line
policing.

And since all of these ideas are consistent with Conservative
policies, why shouldn't Harper be raising them, especially now?

It's true we may never know the precise reasons why James Roszko did
what he did. But we do know it wasn't because he feared that our
justice system -- which he played like a fiddle -- was going to lock
him up and throw away the key. It wasn't because he feared being
busted for running a grow-op since most grow-op operators never serve
any hard time.

And it wasn't because he lived in fear of the gun registry. If now
isn't the time to raise these issues, when will the right time be?