Conservatives Set Up Crime Commission

[mirror]

Conservatives set up task force on crime issues

Canadians sit by watching PM Martin, Ambassador McKenna, & their corporate connections dismantle health care, and Mr Harper want to set up a crime commission.

Give us a break!

When are Canada's political parties ever going to put Canada's interests, even for a little bit, above their own absurd political agendas?

[kimmy]

As I hear it, streets in the Greater Toronto Area have become shooting-galleries. Having a policy to put forth on the issue sounds like a good idea to me.

Of course you're right about health-care, though. Harper does have to get their healthcare message clarified and publicized.

-k

[cybercoma]

As I hear it, streets in the Greater Toronto Area have become shooting-galleries.  Having a policy to put forth on the issue sounds like a good idea to me.

Of course you're right about health-care, though. Harper does have to get their healthcare message clarified and publicized.

-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There has been a ridiculous amount of gun-related murders in Toronto. Gang violence is at an all-time high.

[mirror]

Does anyone know the actual numbers? The number of killings per year over the past 20 years in the GTA.

[cybercoma]

I guess toronto police don't believe in updating their website:

http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/homicide/statistics.php

edit: at least statcan does...

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050721/d050721a.htm

[Argus]

As I hear it, streets in the Greater Toronto Area have become shooting-galleries.  Having a policy to put forth on the issue sounds like a good idea to me.

Of course you're right about health-care, though. Harper does have to get their healthcare message clarified and publicized.

-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Tories have a bit of a problem on the health care issue. They had a reasonable policy of exploring the introduction of private sector alternatives that might take us closer to the European model. The Libs and NDP. with the aid of the leftist media and academia ran successful scare campaigns the last couple of elections to try to convince Canadians that the Tories wanted an American style "two tier" system, only worse than the Americans. I think some of them were actually suggesting the Tories wanted to destroy public health care entirely in order to profit their "rich" friends, or some such babble.

In order to combat that the Tories basically revamped (Ie, revesed) their policy to embrace a single tier, no private health care model. Which, of course, doesn't work. And now that a substantial number of Canadians have come to realize that private health care is the only real path to major reform the Tories are caught opposing it. Whoops.

[mirror]

Here is a situation that the Conservatives might want to investigate with their crime commission. I don't know a lot about the court system but how can you kill someone in Canada and not be sent to prison is beyond me?:

B.C. woman avoids prison in death of secret lover

[mirror]

Here's another case. What's going here with sentencing anyway?

No jail for sex abuser in Jehovah's Witness case

[hiti]

Second night of gunfire rocks Calgary

So it's not just Toronto.

[mirror]

Toughen bail for gun crimes, Toronto's mayor suggests

Are we losing the battle for our cities?

It seems like gun crimes are reaching epidemic proportions in some parts of Canada.

[kimmy]

Toughen bail for gun crimes, Toronto's mayor suggests

Are we losing the battle for our cities?

It seems like gun crimes are reaching epidemic proportions in some parts of Canada.

...so... the Gun Registry isn't working??

-k

[mirror]

I guess you'll have to put me down as a bleeding heart because we can't just keep on building more prisons to house misfits in our society. I agree that the only long term solution is to initiate a prevention program but habits wil have to be changed to stop glorifying our culture of violence especially on TV. Maybe we need to shut down all commercial TV, and let the CBC do its thing everywhere. There are no easy answers here but it does sound like we have a very serious problem on our hands.

Gun laws tough enough, minister says

Mayor joins police chief in criticism of courts' attitude to gun crimes

Federal Attorney General Irwin Cotler said the laws in this country are strong enough to deal with gun-toting criminals and that the solution to gun violence in Toronto lies in developing "a culture of prevention."

"Toronto has really taken important steps, not only to have more police but to develop community relationships," Cotler, also the justice minister, told reporters this morning after a meeting with Mayor David Miller about the escalating gun crime this summer in Toronto.

Fifteen people have been fatally shot in the city since June 24.

"I think you will begin to see measurable successes," Cotler said.

Cotler and Miller told reporters that the key to ridding the city of gun crime is a multi-faceted approach including improved programs for young people to lure them away from guns and gangs.

Miller said "we know that if we invest in young people, and get to young people before they get involved in the gun and gang culture, we will have a very effective impact on reducing crime."

Cotler said the law currently provides a minimum of four years for gun crimes and a maximum of 14 years for 10 of the most serious offences, such as attempted murder, murder and manslaughter .

"So mandatory minimums are in place," Cotler said. "There are more crimes that are the object of mandatory minimum sentences that are related to gun-related crimes than almost any other genre of criminality."

When Julian Fantino was police chief, he called for minimum 10-year sentences for all gun crime.

Cotler said the law has to operate within a constitutional framework.

"The Supreme Court has already said that it appears four years is the maximum for a mandatory minimum with respect to its constitutionality."

Miller addressed the problem of criminals getting out on bail and committing more gun crimes.

That problem, he said, "is an administration of justice" that is partly a provincial court problem.

"There's only one reason to have illegal gun, and that's to shoot somebody. And if you shoot somebody, you don't get out on bail. It should be the same thing if you have a gun. As far as I'm concerned the justice system has to treat those kinds of crimes very seriously."

Cotler said there is a working group tackling bail reform.

[mirror]

Another day another Toronto killing. Have the police caught any of these people? Perhaps one or two.

Man shot dead outside townhouse complex

[Argus]

Cotler said the law currently provides a minimum of four years for gun crimes and a maximum of 14 years for 10 of the most serious offences, such as attempted murder, murder and manslaughter .

"So mandatory minimums are in place," Cotler said.

This is so much BS, of course. Those "mandatory minimums" get negotiated away about 98% of the time. The Crown lowers or ignores the gun charges in order to get a plea and avoid clogging the court rooms. Besides which they know that judges loath those minimum sentences and are quite likely to find a felon not guilty in order to avoid them. I have no documentation, but in the years I've been a regular reader of crime pages on a variety of newspapers I have never heard of ANYONE being sent to jail simply for posession of restricted weapons, or buying or selling them, or smuggling them. And usually when I hear of people going to jail it's for actually shooting someone. Even then they're given a couple of years, but with 2 or 3 days credit for every day they spent in pre-trial custody, and then given parole after 1/6th their sentence is served.

The fact is there will never be strong punishment for crimes of violence until there is a small "c" conservative government in power in Ottawa.

[mcqueen625]

The reality is that no amount of money wasted on a gun registry is going to take the guns out of the hands of the criminal element, in fact all our latest attempt has accomplished is the wasting of close to $2 Billion of our hard earned dollars and the only people who have complied are some law abiding Canadian's. Even there many have just refused to register theri weapons knowing that it a complete waste of financial resources, and it has not accomplished the stated goal of cutting down of criminal acts while using rifles and shotguns. Why is that? It is because first of all criminals do not register their weapons.

Most robberies and gun violence is taking place, not with rifles and shotguns, but with handguns. Handgun restrictive legislation was introduced and passed in Canada back in 1934, and the latest article I read estimated that only 20% of the the handguns in this country were ever registered. In essence the registry was a total failure, and the same fate is in store for Chretien's long-gun legislation.

Our government talks a good crime fight, but the reality is something quite different. We have a justice system that is a laughing-stock and today it seems nobody is responsible for their own decisions, from Young Offenders up to adults. Jail-time doesn't mean jail anymore, and in many cases it means that the convicted criminal get's to go back home to serve his sentence, with few real restrictions. In my Province electronic monitoring was deemed too expensive so those on house arrest get called periodically by a person who does not even know this individual they are charged with checking on.

I read a news article quoting one of the U.S. State Governor's, and in this article the Governor was referring to an individual I had supervised while he served time in Open-Custody as a Young Offender. THis individual was now an adult and he had committed numerous acts of theft and fraud of substantial sums of money. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison, but upon sentencing immediately applied for a transfer to a Canadian Prison, nkowing that the likelihood of serving anywhere close to 7 years in a Canadian facility was slim at best. The Governor stated that the Canadian judicial system was far too lenient, and if he granted this transfer the ;okelihood was that this person would be immediately released from custody under the Canadian system. Therefore he decided that there would be no transfer. The Governor stated that upon release after serving his full sentence in a State Prison, this individual would be immediately deported back to Canada. Knowing the individual this governor was talking about I thought, Right On Gov.!

[mcqueen625]

Cotler said the law currently provides a minimum of four years for gun crimes and a maximum of 14 years for 10 of the most serious offences, such as attempted murder, murder and manslaughter .

"So mandatory minimums are in place," Cotler said.

This is so much BS, of course. Those "mandatory minimums" get negotiated away about 98% of the time. The Crown lowers or ignores the gun charges in order to get a plea and avoid clogging the court rooms. Besides which they know that judges loath those minimum sentences and are quite likely to find a felon not guilty in order to avoid them. I have no documentation, but in the years I've been a regular reader of crime pages on a variety of newspapers I have never heard of ANYONE being sent to jail simply for posession of restricted weapons, or buying or selling them, or smuggling them. And usually when I hear of people going to jail it's for actually shooting someone. Even then they're given a couple of years, but with 2 or 3 days credit for every day they spent in pre-trial custody, and then given parole after 1/6th their sentence is served.

The fact is there will never be strong punishment for crimes of violence until there is a small "c" conservative government in power in Ottawa.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

YOu are right on Argus! What needs to happen is for discretionary sentencing to be taken off the table for judges. These bleeding hearts should not have the discretion of using a minimum sentence. I say bleeding hearts because one of the last judges appointed to the bench in New Brunswick is a former President of the local Chapter of The John Howard Society, in fact the YOA Group Home owned by the Society is named after him.

The fact is that lately, judicial appointments seem to go to bleeding heart liberal minded Liberals.

[mirror]

Well duh, aren't the police doing this already? They can't be serious about this.

Ont., T.O. police to inspect gun shops

The City of Toronto needs to purchase some billboards around the city and use them similiar to the way they are used by company plants to show their safety record. You know so many days accident free, except Toronto's billboards could say, for example today:

CITY OF TORONTO, NUMBER OF DAYS FREE FROM GUN KILLINGS: ONE!