Adoption of Bill 10: A Sad Day for Democracy

The Couillard government has chosen its camp: it has decided to side with the powerful who have no qualms about crushing conflicting or dissenting voices in order to impose their vision. It took less than a year for the man who presented the Liberals as the most respectful and transparent government in our history to attack democracy. And what better opportunity to ride roughshod over democracy than a bill that dismantles our public system of health care and social services?

Bill C-10 will hurt First Nations communities

Apart from the occasional whiz of a vehicle hurtling down Chiefswood Road, the main thoroughfare that leads into the heart of the Six Nations of the Grand River, the most populous First Nation in Canada, is still.

Wind gently rustles treetops, birds happily chirp and a blank-eyed rabbit silently inspects my car before darting into a green field; the scene is downright bucolic.

A little further into the reserve, however, a gravel parking lot outside a characterless strip mall buzzes with activity.

Bill C-10 Hit With Legal Challenges By Quebec Bar Association

OTTAWA - The Quebec Bar Association has launched a legal challenge against parts of the federal Conservatives' law-and-order agenda.

In a case that could ultimately find itself before the Supreme Court, the association has filed a motion in Quebec Superior Court seeking to strike down sections of Bill C-10.

Is the Harper government really the champion of crime victims?

Look through the press releases on the Public Safety website and it won’t be long before you find some reference to crime victims and how the Harper government is on their side. Whether it was Bill C-10, the huge omnibus crime bill that only mentioned victims a handful of times or announcements about building new prison cells or not building new prisons, it’s clear that the Harper government wants us to believe they are the only government that has done anything for victims.

The most recent example is Bill C-37, the Increasing Offenders’ Accountability for Victims Act. The bill, if passed, will remove a judge’s discretion to waive the Victim Fine Surcharge and it doubles the amount. The money raised from surcharges goes directly to provinces who are supposed to use it to fund services for victims.

Prisoners speak out against Harper's omnibus crime bill

On Prisoners' Justice Day, in every jail in Canada and in prisons around the world, inmates will go on a 24-hour hunger strike.

We do this to remember Eddy Nolan who died in Millhaven Penitentiary in Ontario on August 10, 1974 as a victim of the inhumane conditions in that prison at that time. We do this to remember all of the inmates who fought and the two who died in a four-day riot in April of 1971 at Kingston Penitentiary. Both of those incidents led to major reforms in the Canadian prison system. We fast so that we ourselves remember. We strike to remind the institutions and the world that even behind bars we are still entitled to human rights and human dignity, and we can still fight for both.

Enbridge executive’s company awarded first crime Bill C-10 $38.5-million prison project

Opponents of the Conservative government’s crime Bill C-10 were justified to argue that private companies would profiteer from the new jail system the legislation proposed for Canada. On Tuesday, the Canadian Press reported that a Toronto-based construction company, Bird Construction Inc., has been awarded the contract to build the $38.5-million North East Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Nova Scotia. The 200-bed facility is due to open in 2014.

Turns out there’s a connection between the company and Enbridge Inc.: a man named J. Richard Bird, who also has a strong connection with the federal government. The 62-year old Harvard Business School and University of Toronto graduate served as a member of the Minister of Finance’s Advisory Committee on Financing from 2009 to early 2010.

‘Time and punishment’ now Canada’s way

Any week now, we might expect the Correctional Service of Canada to be renamed Punishment Canada.

Corrections – the idea that those in prison might be assisted while incarcerated to be better prepared for life outside jail – is apparently foreign to the Harper government. Instead, it wants to put more people away for longer, then, figuratively speaking, throw away the key. Punishment is in; correction is out.

Just when you think this government’s criminal justice policies, which have been almost universally denounced by experts in the field, can’t get worse, they do.

So it was recently when Public Safety Minister Vic Toews rolled out more mean-spirited, politically motivated and predictably counterproductive policies to make life harder for those in prison.

Canada Drug Laws: Public Health Leaders Attack Ottawa's Ideology-Based Drug Policies

TORONTO - A number of leading figures in Canadian public health are criticizing the federal government's approach to drug policy, suggesting political ideology is trumping scientific evidence.

In a two-pronged attack, the chief medical officers of health for British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia are publishing a commentary in the journal Open Medicine today that calls on the government to rethink strategies like minimum mandatory sentences for minor drug-related offences.

And the Urban Public Health Network, a group that represents the chief public health officers in Canada's 18 largest municipalities, has announced its endorsement of the Vienna Declaration, which calls on governments to draft drug policies based on evidence of what works.

"Basically what we're saying is that we don't think that the model we're using is particularly effective," said Dr. Perry Kendall, British Columbia's chief medical officer of health.

Tough drug laws harm health and safety, doctors say

Criminalizing the use of marijuana and other tough on crime approaches haven't worked, say public health doctors from across Canada who propose taxation and regulation instead.

The chief medical health officers in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan wrote a paper reviewing the evidence on Canada's current illicit drug policies in Wednesday's issue of the journal Open Medicine.

The paper comes as the federal government is set to table its budget amid funding questions for its new anti-crime legislation, which includes mandatory minimum sentences for minor drug offences.

Looking at illegal drugs solely based on a criminal justice approach has failed, said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical health officer, a co-author of the paper.

"For the last decade, Portugal has decriminalized all drug use and they have some of the lowest rates of drug use in Europe and they have some of the least amounts of harm from drug use," Strang said.

The Crime Omnibus Bill: What is to be done?

On March 12, despite months of protest across the country, the federal government’s Omnibus Crime Bill (euphemistically known as the “the safe streets and communities act”), cleared its final Parliamentary hurdle when the Harper Conservatives voted 154–129 in the House of Commons to pass the legislation. Now the bill goes to the Governor General for royal assent. This was despite:

• The opposition of over 30,000 Canadians who signed the Leadnow.ca petition calling on both Members of Parliament and Senators to reject the legislation;

• The opposition of many groups such as the John Howard Society of Canada, the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, the Canadian Civil, Pivot Legal Society, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Educators for Sensible Drug Policy, the Canadian AIDS Society, the Canadian Federation of Students, Reclaim our Democratic Canada, the British Columbia Humanist Association, the National Union of Public and General Employees, the Church Council on Justice and Corrections, the Canadian Barristers Association, the Canadian Association of Social Workers, and the Association des services de réhabilitation sociale du Québec – all of whom spoke out against the legislation;

• The opposition of the New Democratic, Liberal, Green, and Bloc Québécois parties;

• The government moving time allocation on three separate occasions to rush the passage of the legislation.
The passage of the Bill C-10 is a triumph of ideology, obstinacy, and stupidity over reason – and a sad day for Canada and Canadian democracy. So, in the words of Nikolai Chernashevsky’s 1863 novel, still equally germane 150 years after its publication, “What is to Be Done?”

Quebec: We'll work to soften the new federal crime bill

MONTREAL - Quebec's vigorous opposition of the Harper government's freshly adopted crime legislation entered a new phase Tuesday as the province pledged to minimize the bill's impact on its soil.

The Quebec government, already angered by the legislation's potential cost to the provinces, announced that it would do everything in its power to limit the clout of the sweeping bill that passed a day earlier.

Because the provinces are responsible for applying the laws passed in Ottawa, Quebec's justice minister said he can hand judges and prosecutors instructions that would soften the impact of Bill C-10 — particularly when it comes to youth offenders.

Under the plan, provincial officials said they will ask that a young offender's name only be made public in exceptional circumstances; relieve prosecutors of the obligation to demand an adult sentence for someone under 16; and create a program to treat drug addicts instead of imprisoning them.

Omnibus Crime Bill: Massive Conservative Legislation Passes After Brief Delay By NDP

OTTAWA - The Conservative government that rushed to pass a massive crime bill by curtailing debate in the House of Commons and Senate now says it will take its time making the new measures a reality on the street.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's majority easily passed Bill C-10 on Monday evening by a vote of 154-129, sweeping aside a procedural delay by the NDP that stalled the bill's curtain call for five days.

The legislation, which includes nine separate bills, goes briefly back to the Senate and could get royal assent as early as Tuesday — meeting Harper's campaign promise last spring to pass the bill within 100 sitting days of a new parliament.

Working the changes through the justice system will take considerably longer.

"We're going to space out a number of them out," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said outside the Commons before the final vote Monday.

Tories' crime bill clears Parliament

The Conservative government's controversial crime bill has passed a final vote in the House of Commons, a few days later than the government expected.

The Tories had planned to pass Bill C-10 last Wednesday, but the NDP was able to delay the last day of debate until Friday and push the final vote to Monday.

Prior to the final vote, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said he was disappointed by the opposition tactics.

"These are very reasonable measures. They go after those who sexually exploit children, people in the child pornography business and it goes after drug traffickers, so this will be welcomed particularly by victims, those involved with law enforcement, and as we know, Canadians are supportive of what we are doing in this area," Nicholson told reporters.

He said once the bill becomes law the government will consult with the provinces to decide on timelines for implementing its various measures.

"We're going to space a number of them out," he said.

Harper’s promise fulfilled as House passes crime bill

After prematurely celebrating passage of their omnibus crime bill last week, the federal Conservatives have finally managed to push the controversial piece of legislation through Parliament.

The final vote in the House of Commons on Monday means Prime Minister Stephen Harper has fulfilled his commitment to get the legislation passed within the first 100 days of this session.

The New Democrats had used procedural wrangling to postpone the vote, which was supposed to take place last Wednesday, until Monday evening. But the federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson prevailed when the bill was passed by a vote of 154 to 129. With royal assent or an order in council, it will become law.

The delay came “as a great disappointment to victims groups who are very supportive of this,” Mr. Nicholson told reporters on Monday.

“These are very reasonable measures,” he said. “They go after those who sexually exploit children, people in the child pornography business and it goes after drug traffickers. So this will be welcomed, particularly by victims, those involved with law enforcement and, as we know, Canadians are supportive of what we are doing in this area.”

Bill C-10: The Debate that Wasn't

Today, the House had its final opportunity to debate Bill C-10, the Conservative omnibus crime bill. I rose to participate in the debate and began with my prospective conclusion -- that, if at the conclusion of this debate we adopt Bill C-10, we will adopt legislation that lacks an evidentiary basis in its pertinent particulars; we will be adopting legislation that is constitutionally suspect, thereby violating our obligations and inviting future Charter challenges; we will be adopting legislation for which the costs remain unknown, thereby breaching our responsibilities for the oversight of the public purse while also burdening the provinces.

If we adopt C-10, we will increase prison over-crowding -- also giving rise to Charter concerns -- while again not improving the safety of Canadians in any way. Indeed, adopting this legislation would be a betrayal of the very mandate common to all parties in this House: ensuring safe streets and communities. For we will end up, as I said when this bill was introduced -- and must reaffirm again -- with more crime, less justice, spiralling yet undisclosed costs, less rehabilitation for the offender, less protection for the victims, and less safety for our citizens.

Simply put, the entire C-10 debate -- consisting of repeated invocation of time allocation and summarily rejecting all opposition amendments -- is endemic of the government's ill-considered, unthinking, and intemperate "rush to judgment." I say "rush to judgement" because, in a sad irony, that is what this bill seeks to do. It is quick to judge non-violent offenders as needing lengthy mandatory minimum prison sentences in the face of all evidence to the contrary.

Who Created Bill C-30? The Liberals Would Rather Forget (They Did)

You have no doubt heard or read about the opposition's attacks on minimum sentences and on Bill C- 30, which would adapt the investigative powers of police services to fight cybercrime. My purpose today is not to take a position for or against either of these proposals but instead to highlight two contradictions that are rather embarrassing for the Liberals.

The opposition's criticisms are long on vitriol and short on content. Liberal MPs have even posted an online petition against Bill C-30 titled "Don't let Stephen Harper creep your emails." Well, I won't comment on the outrageous misinformation contained in the petition's title or the biased statements in its introduction. Rather, I'm wondering who is behind Bill C-30? By reviewing the legislative records, I learned that it was the Liberal government of Paul Martin! Indeed, on November 15, 2005, the Liberal government's deputy prime minister, Anne McLellan, noted law professor and legal scholar, introduced Bill C-74. This bill had virtually the same form and content as Bill C-30. The title of Bill C-74 was itself highly revealing of its purpose: "An Act regulating telecommunications facilities to facilitate the lawful interception of information transmitted by means of those facilities and respecting the provision of telecommunications subscriber information."

The big crime news is declining violence

In life, as in politics, people like to associate themselves with winning outcomes. Or as U.S. president John Kennedy memorably put it, "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan."

So isn't it remarkable that no one in authority seems anxious to step up and embrace the truly historic decline in violent crime across Canada and the U.S. in recent years?

To criminologists such as Boston's James Alan Fox, the importance of this trend is glaringly obvious: "The homicide rate, perhaps the single most important marker of civilization's advance or retreat, is dropping through the floor," he says.

Yet this particular victory remains an orphan. You don't find many politicians trumpeting the long-term decline in crime when they're hoping to gain votes by appearing tough.

The police, too, seem to fear that talk of success will lead to their budgets being cut. The same often goes for social agencies. And good news is hardly the media's favourite dish.

Omnibus Crime Bill To Pass Final Vote Wednesday After Tories Cut Off Debate

OTTAWA - The Conservative government is poised to make good on its election promise and vote in a sweeping crime bill that will swell the prison population and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says the omnibus legislation, which includes nine, separate crime-related bills, will crack down on child predators and violent drug traffickers.

After some minor amendments in the Senate, the bill gets its final vote in the House of Commons tonight — well within the deadline of 100 sitting days promised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper during last spring's federal election campaign.

The government says the bill will lead to safer communities and fewer victims of crime, although it has never set a measurable target for assessing crime reduction.

The bill's many critics — including former tough-on-crime crusaders in the United States — say bitter experience shows that the move to mandatory minimum sentences, longer jail terms and less judicial discretion won't increase public safety but will prove costly.

Questions over the cost of crime measures — and the government's unwillingness or inability to provide a detailed budget — helped spark the contempt-of-parliament charges that led to last spring's election, which the Conservatives turned into a majority mandate.

Original Article
Source: Huff
Author: canadian press

What worries critics about omnibus crime bill

The Conservatives are expected to pass their controversial omnibus crime bill this week, the first in a series of anti-crime measures the majority government of Stephen Harper has vowed to introduce.

Bill C-10, formerly known as the Safe Streets and Communities Act, encompasses several different pieces of legislation.

Opposition parties, professionals working within the corrections and justice systems, the Canadian Bar Association and various other interest groups have raised wide-ranging concerns about the legislation. Below is an overview of some of their objections.

Mandatory minimums

By far the most criticized aspect of the bill is the introduction of mandatory jail sentences for certain crimes, including drug trafficking, sex crimes, child exploitation and some violent offences. Opponents of the measures have argued that this type of sentencing has been tried in other jurisdictions, most notably in the U.S., and has created more problems than it has solved.

The disastrous consequences of the omnibus crime bill

With last week's Senate approval of Bill C-10, Canada is close to becoming the most regressive Western democracy on criminal justice. That unenviable position has most recently been occupied by the United States. But even though some of the most conservative Republicans are now arguing against over-incarceration, Canada continues to pursue that objective.

Americans have recently recognized that incarcerating 2.3 million people does not reduce the crime rate. Consequently, state after state has rolled back mandatory minimum sentences, draconian penalties, harsh parole eligibility and so on. Canada, on the contrary, is implementing all of these, plus mean-minded pardon and international prisoner transfer provisions.

A variety of constituents, including some surprising ones, have pleaded with the Conservative government to rethink its tough-on-crime agenda. Correctional officials, police chiefs, medical associations, victims advocates, prison guards, former attorneys-general and justice ministers, lawyers and judges and criminologists, people who have spent their lives learning what works to reduce crime -- all of these have warned against the consequences of Bill C-10.

We recently learned that Public Safety Minister Vic Toews does not understand what is in his own cyber surveillance law, Bill C-30. He is sensibly considering amendments to this bill in response to the surprising (to him) news that it is too intrusive; also to the outrage expressed by the public.