Tories To Introduce Crime Omnibus Bill, Pervert Justice System

Three cheers for majority government!

You voted for it, Canada, and now you're about to get it: Stephen Harper's government will introduce its massive crime omnibus bill in the hallowed halls of the House of Commons today. The bill was one of the Tories' key campaign promises, as they had tried to pass its various pieces individually under minority governments but got held up by prorogation and that pesky opposition. So, just what's in this bill? Among others, we can now expect:

• Mandatory minimum sentences for growing marijuana and a slew of other offences;

• Harsher sentences for child predators;

• Tougher regulations for pardons;

• The end of house arrest for serious offenders;

• A more politicized extradition and repatriation process;

• Streamlined megatrials;

• The ability for terror victims to sue terrorists;

• A bunch of other stuff.

Listen. The logic (or lack thereof) behind this bill has been criticized to death by every newspaper, every leading criminologist and sociologist, every opposition politician, and just about everybody with some understanding of the justice system in the country. There are parts of the bill that are worthwhile, but the Tories have decided that they need to pass all these measures together within the first 100 days of Parliament, and they seem dead set on doing just that. Doing so will lead to billions more spent on building and upgrading prisons to cope with the influx of new prisoners, despite there being no proof at all that most of these measures – especially the mandatory minimum sentences – will accomplish anything beyond increasing employment in the corrections sector. We don't know what's compelled the Tories to do so, as the only reasons they've really given are a) that one victim of crime is one victim too many, and that b) the voters gave them a mandate to pass this bill, even if the crime rate is as low as it's ever been. All the sound arguments in the world against this bill wouldn't get the Tories to change tack, but such is the life under a majority government. Four more years!