Supreme Court Further Dismantles Harper Government's Tough-on-Crime Agenda
"The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down as unconstitutional two
more planks of the defeated Harper government’s tough-on-crime platform.
It struck down the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions for drug
offenders who have a prior criminal record for drug offences as well as
ruling that a person denied bail because of prior convictions should get
credit for time served before sentencing.
It is not as if mandatory minimums or the Truth in Sentencing Act are
gone, but elements of them, laid out in two decisions released Friday, have been declared in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
View the Decisions:
R. v. Lloyd, 2016 SCC 13
R. v. Safarzadeh-Markhali, 2016 SCC 14
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Showing posts with label tough on crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tough on crime. Show all posts
The Impact of Harper's "Tough on Crime" Strategy: Hearing from Frontline Workers
" Crime rates in Canada have been steadily dropping for over a decade, while prison populations have been increasing in recent years. Commentators have attributed this disconnection between falling crime rates and increasing incarceration numbers to the Harper government's 'tough on crime' strategy. Since coming to power in 2006, the Harper government has implemented a host of legislative and policy changes designed to 'tackle crime,' 'hold offenders accountable,' and 'make communities safer.' At the same time, the government also enacted significant budget cuts that have affected the ability of the correctional system to uphold its mandate."
" Crime rates in Canada have been steadily dropping for over a decade, while prison populations have been increasing in recent years. Commentators have attributed this disconnection between falling crime rates and increasing incarceration numbers to the Harper government's 'tough on crime' strategy. Since coming to power in 2006, the Harper government has implemented a host of legislative and policy changes designed to 'tackle crime,' 'hold offenders accountable,' and 'make communities safer.' At the same time, the government also enacted significant budget cuts that have affected the ability of the correctional system to uphold its mandate."
Crime and Populism
The Harper government has made a tough stance on crime one of its showcase positions. Why?
Over the past eight years, the federal Conservatives have seldom missed an opportunity to show Canadians how seriously they take crime and how eager they are to make convicted offenders sorry for their transgressions. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made punishing crime a showcase priority of his government. He hammered this home in his annual summer speech to the local faithful in Calgary this past July. “If, God forbid, Canadians are attacked, or robbed, if they lose someone they love to a murderer, or if they see their children driven to suicide by bullying and harassment… the first thing they want their government to do is not to make excuses for criminals, but to stick up for victims,” reads the Prime Minister’s prepared speech. “And that is our role.”
This is not empty rhetoric. Since taking office in 2006, the government has introduced no fewer than 81 crime bills, though only 30 have been passed into law. According to University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob, the effect of these new laws has largely been to lengthen sentences (as with mandatory minimums) or to eliminate chances to have sentences shortened (as with the elimination of “accelerated parole review,” a mechanism that could temper punishments for first-time, nonviolent offenders).
The Harper government has made a tough stance on crime one of its showcase positions. Why?
Over the past eight years, the federal Conservatives have seldom missed an opportunity to show Canadians how seriously they take crime and how eager they are to make convicted offenders sorry for their transgressions. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made punishing crime a showcase priority of his government. He hammered this home in his annual summer speech to the local faithful in Calgary this past July. “If, God forbid, Canadians are attacked, or robbed, if they lose someone they love to a murderer, or if they see their children driven to suicide by bullying and harassment… the first thing they want their government to do is not to make excuses for criminals, but to stick up for victims,” reads the Prime Minister’s prepared speech. “And that is our role.”
This is not empty rhetoric. Since taking office in 2006, the government has introduced no fewer than 81 crime bills, though only 30 have been passed into law. According to University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob, the effect of these new laws has largely been to lengthen sentences (as with mandatory minimums) or to eliminate chances to have sentences shortened (as with the elimination of “accelerated parole review,” a mechanism that could temper punishments for first-time, nonviolent offenders).
New Vera Report Takes Stock of State-level Mandatory Sentencing Reforms
Today, twenty years after the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act—commonly referred to as the Crime Bill—established a federal three
strikes law and unleashed a cascade of state-level truth-in-sentencing
reforms, a seismic shift away from tough-on-crime policies is well
underway. In a new policy report, Playbook for Change? States Reconsider Mandatory Sentences, Vera’s
Center on Sentencing and Corrections finds that more than half of all
states have taken steps to roll back mandatory sentences since 2000,
with 32 bills passed in just the last five years. Most of this
legislative activity has focused on adjusting penalties for nonviolent
drug offenses by taking one or a combination of three approaches:
expanding judicial discretion by creating so-called “safety valve”
provisions, limiting automatic sentence enhancements, or repealing or
revising mandatory minimum sentences.
Read on....
Read on....
Stephen Harper’s ‘tough-on-crime’ laws are more misguided than ever
More Canadians are realizing that crime is down and want the federal government to focus on prevention.
For 20 years there’s
been a troubling disconnect between the reality of crime in Canada and
people’s fear of it. The persistent — though mistaken — view that crime
is on the rise has allowed governments to push through ever more
“tough-on-crime” laws.
Prime Minister Stephen
Harper’s Conservatives have taken this to extremes. The omnibus Bill
C-10 before the Senate right now will foist enormous and unnecessary
costs on taxpayers.
Yet in reality violent crime is down. Property crime is down. Other crimes are down. Crime is at its lowest since 1973.
Read on...
This is from an editorial in the Toronto Star. Tom
Read on...
This is from an editorial in the Toronto Star. Tom
Harper’s ‘tough on crime’ is all torque
During five years in minority government, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives
introduced 61 crime bills. In doing so, they successfully portrayed
themselves as favouring harsh treatment for offenders. If “being tough”
were all there was to criminal punishment, they would have been
successful. But it isn’t that simple.
Most Canadians believe what the law has said for years: “A sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender.” But ensuring that this happens is not easy. In 2010, the Alberta Court of Appeal noted that judges sentencing identical cases would often hand down different sentences. When prison sentences are imposed, the portion of the time that is actually served in prison is not completely predictable. Many people think offenders will routinely be released on parole, although that isn’t the case.
Sentencing and release from prison, two parts of our punishment system, deserve thoughtful attention. Fixing the problems that exist in each will not be easy. But the Conservatives have systematically avoided addressing the difficult and real problems facing the criminal justice system.
Read on...
Tony Doob, one of the authors of this piece, is a Professor Emeritus at the Centre. Tom
Most Canadians believe what the law has said for years: “A sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender.” But ensuring that this happens is not easy. In 2010, the Alberta Court of Appeal noted that judges sentencing identical cases would often hand down different sentences. When prison sentences are imposed, the portion of the time that is actually served in prison is not completely predictable. Many people think offenders will routinely be released on parole, although that isn’t the case.
Sentencing and release from prison, two parts of our punishment system, deserve thoughtful attention. Fixing the problems that exist in each will not be easy. But the Conservatives have systematically avoided addressing the difficult and real problems facing the criminal justice system.
Read on...
Tony Doob, one of the authors of this piece, is a Professor Emeritus at the Centre. Tom
Fear of a black mask
The federal Conservatives have developed a reflexive tic. They seem
to awake in the morning, read something in the news that annoys them,
and gather to push through a quick law banning or punishing it.
They discover Clifford Olsen is receiving pension-plan payments, so they ban the practice. They're upset that a Chinese grocer is arrested after chasing off a persistent thief, so they change the law on citizen's arrest. Intent on helping police track down crooks, they introduce a law empowering police to spy on almost anyone for anything - then accuse anyone who criticizes the law as a would be child-pornographer. They find out that some prisoners are earning a pittance in prison from doing menial work, so they slap a tax on it. And they call all of it getting "tough on crime" and "standing up for victims."
As previous experience has illustrated, this often blows up on the Tories, and they have to backtrack. Just this week, Immigration Minister Jason Kenny amended a bill that would have allowed some refugees to be detained for a year without a review by the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Read on....
They discover Clifford Olsen is receiving pension-plan payments, so they ban the practice. They're upset that a Chinese grocer is arrested after chasing off a persistent thief, so they change the law on citizen's arrest. Intent on helping police track down crooks, they introduce a law empowering police to spy on almost anyone for anything - then accuse anyone who criticizes the law as a would be child-pornographer. They find out that some prisoners are earning a pittance in prison from doing menial work, so they slap a tax on it. And they call all of it getting "tough on crime" and "standing up for victims."
As previous experience has illustrated, this often blows up on the Tories, and they have to backtrack. Just this week, Immigration Minister Jason Kenny amended a bill that would have allowed some refugees to be detained for a year without a review by the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Read on....
Marc Mauer Discusses "Race to Imitate" in Ottawa, Canada
May 04, 2008 (Ottawa Citizen, CBC Ottawa)
At the invitation of the Church Council on Justice and Corrections and the John Howard Society, The Sentencing Project's Executive Director Marc Mauer appeared in Ottawa, Canada to speak on the “Race to Imitate.” The Canadian government has been moving to adopt many of the “get tough” policies promoted in the U.S. in recent decades, leading Mauer to caution that such initiatives have been counterproductive in the U.S. Mauer was featured on CBC Ottawa's “Ontario Today” radio broadcast and a policy forum at St. Paul's University.
Series of stories in the Ottawa Citizen found here: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=831d3f95-2423-4a8f-bbcb-7f5d573f6e03&p=2
I guess we'll find out soon enough how the "tough on crime" arguments play out in a federal election in Canada. Tom
At the invitation of the Church Council on Justice and Corrections and the John Howard Society, The Sentencing Project's Executive Director Marc Mauer appeared in Ottawa, Canada to speak on the “Race to Imitate.” The Canadian government has been moving to adopt many of the “get tough” policies promoted in the U.S. in recent decades, leading Mauer to caution that such initiatives have been counterproductive in the U.S. Mauer was featured on CBC Ottawa's “Ontario Today” radio broadcast and a policy forum at St. Paul's University.
Series of stories in the Ottawa Citizen found here: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=831d3f95-2423-4a8f-bbcb-7f5d573f6e03&p=2
I guess we'll find out soon enough how the "tough on crime" arguments play out in a federal election in Canada. Tom
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