Harpers Gun and Gang Position

[rbacon]

Amazing how biased Canada's media has become.--This post that appears on the party website really hits the mark.

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Idle talk won't save lives

30 December 2005

Publication: National Post

Page: A18

Byline: Stephen Harper

The Boxing Day shooting tragedy in Toronto has shocked and saddened us all. As a father, I cannot imagine a worse nightmare. As one raised in Toronto, I see a different city than the one in which I grew up.

The brutal end to a promising young life should be a wake-up call to all in positions of authority: a call to crack down on gun crime and gang violence. For years, Canadians have been urging their governments to get tough on crime. The time is long overdue for their leaders to respond.

While this incident alone should be enough to prompt action, the sad reality is that it continues a pattern. The number of gun murders in Toronto has virtually doubled in the space of one year. Across the country in 2004 we experienced a 12% increase in homicides.

Canadians know that the growing violence and the proliferation of gangs, guns and drugs that accompany it are directly attributable to years of government lassitude and neglect.

Failure to enforce drug laws (and high-profile attempts to weaken them), a revolving door parole policy, and a myopic fixation on registration of farmers' shotguns instead of penalties for gun crime, have all taken their toll.

The federal government has left 1059 RCMP positions unfilled, it disbanded the Ports Canada Police that once patrolled and protected against gun smuggling, and it has no idea how many illegal guns are present in Canada. Cabinet ministers take pride in legislation that allows conditional sentences (basically, house arrest) to replace incarceration -- even for serious crimes involving violence, weapons and drugs. The law governing young offenders is weak and disrespected.

Is it any surprise that these woolly headed policies have exacerbated the problems of gang, gun and drug crime? This is the current government's record.

Little wonder that the federal government wants to turn the recent shootings into an abstract discussion of rights and values.

Gang violence is not in the Charter of Rights. Gun crime is not a Canadian value.

Equally shameful have been politicians' attempts to explain away what happened. Some have implied that perhaps the shooters themselves were victims of exclusion from society.

Law-abiding citizens were outraged by such blithe rhetoric. When a young girl is killed and other innocent bystanders are injured while they shop, it is no time for idle talk about social theories.

It is simplistic and naive to rationalize that young people turn to gangs, drug trade and gun crime because they feel excluded from society. More to the point, it is irresponsible for any leader to make excuses for gang violence.

There is no making sense of senseless violence. There is no point trying to understand a criminal act for which there is no excuse.

If feel-good sentiment were the easy antidote to gun crime, then there should be fewer shootings than a generation ago. If government hand-outs were a quick fix, then gang violence should be disappearing rather than rising.

The law must impose mandatory prison sentences for weapons offences, violent crimes and drug trafficking offences. We must end conditional sentences (house arrest) for weapon offences and other serious crimes.

The law governing young offenders must be strengthened to require that violent or serious repeat offenders 14 years of age or older be tried in adult court. Further, statutory release, the law entitling prisoners to parole after serving two-thirds of their sentence, must be replaced with earned parole.

We must grant customs officers, who serve on the front lines of the fight against gun smuggling, full resources to execute powers of arrest. We must also re-establish the Ports Canada Police and allow them to renew the fight against gun smuggling.

In addition to getting tough on crime, we must focus on prevention. This includes investing in Canadian youth, ensuring the presence of real opportunity, and offering positive role models. Federal, provincial and municipal governments must co-operate with one another and with police and community leaders to support programs that help young people to recognize the dangers of violence in their schools and community.

Prevention is only effective, however, if it includes deterrence and strong law enforcement.

The Boxing Day tragedy should serve as a wake-up call. We need to spend less time trying to rationalize gang violence, and more time trying to stop it.

Stephen Harper is leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

[scribblet]

Good one, wonder if the 2006 shooting will spur the liberals on or will it be just more U.S. bashing.

[Slim MacSquinty]

This is profoundly sad, People on the streat interviews in the Toronto media reveal two interesting things; there is lots of get tough on crime talk and the other is that there seems to be lots of people who believe that talk and rhetoric just might make this problem go away.

The CPC has at least been consistant and I am saddened by the the Liberal team (Martin, MacGuinty and Miller) using this as a political opportunity.

It's just too late to believe they give a damn.

[Lost2]

This is profoundly sad, People on the streat interviews in the Toronto media reveal two interesting things; there is lots of get tough on crime talk and the other is that there seems to be lots of people who believe that talk and rhetoric just might make this problem go away.

The CPC has at least been consistant and I am saddened by the the Liberal team (Martin, MacGuinty and Miller) using this as a political opportunity.

It's just too late to believe they give a damn.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Notice that the Supreme Court sided with the criminals and overturned the law dealing with gangs. I think it's time the whole system is overhauled starting with judges that give a damn about people on the street. Next politicians that give a damn and keep the Supreme court under control.

[stignasty]

Amazing how biased Canada's media has become.--This post that appears on the party website really hits the mark.

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<snip>

I find it interesting how you construe liberal bias from the fact that the "msm" doesn't pick up a Conservative press release.

Wouldn't the fact that the "msm" didn't pick this up from the Liberal website show a conservative bias?

Harper Wrong on Guns and Mandatory Minimums

January 02, 2006

Stephen Harper today claimed that the government is not addressing gun crime.

“This was a government that in the days leading to this campaign was literally ridiculing the idea of mandatory minimum sentences and now they're out there talking about, you know, keeping people in jail, tougher bail, even before people have been convicted,” Mr. Harper told reporters in Ottawa.

THE FACTS

Mr. Harper has a selective memory. By forcing the election, the Conservatives killed legislation (Bill C-82) that would have strengthened law enforcement in Canada. The lost bill would have:

    * doubled mandatory minimum penalties for firearms smuggling, trafficking and the illegal possession of loaded handguns in public places;

    * created two new offences of break and enter to steal a firearm and robbery where a firearm has been stolen; and

    * expanded the use of firearm prohibition orders to establish Lifetime weapons prohibition orders to be extended to all classes of firearms for those convicted of serious violent offences, including manslaughter, sexual assault and robbery, among others, when committed with a firearm.

When the Liberal government brought in an earlier Bill (C-41) that established mandatory minimums for gun crimes Harper and his colleagues voted against the legislation.

Harper has spent his career fighting gun control.

[shoop]

That would be right, except the Conservative piece was actually in the National Post. Not a press release per se. Just an opinion piece.

I find it interesting how you construe liberal bias from the fact that the "msm" doesn't pick up a Conservative press release.

Wouldn't the fact that the "msm" didn't pick this up from the Liberal website show a conservative bias?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>