Pubdate: Fri, 11 Nov 2005
Source: Kelowna Capital News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005, West Partners Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1294
Author: Marshall Jones
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

CONSERVATIVES PREACH TOUGHER LAWS

The Conservative Party of Canada made its pre-election law and order
pitch to crime-fatigued Kelowna this week on a platform of bringing in
more mandatory minimum sentences.

Vic Toews, the Conservative Party justice critic, preached his case to
a choir of some 300 people at a public forum Tuesday night.

He championed a bill the Conservatives are trying to pass in the House
of Commons that would implement a rising scale of mandatory sentences
for the use of firearms in an offence: automatic five years for using
a gun in a robbery, 10 years if the firearm is discharged and 15 years
for hitting somebody.

"Simply by the implementation of mandatory prison sentences for gun
men and drug dealers who want to dominate our streets we break links
between guns and crime in general that has affected too many
communities," Toews said.

He got his loudest round of applause when he called the sentencing
regime in Canada "a joke."

He challenged Justice Minister Irwin Cotler for saying he is
"philosophically opposed" to mandatory minimum sentences and sees no
correlation between stiff sentences and decreases in crime.

Toews gave his recipe for beating a drug rap in Canada. He said all
one has to do is establish a residence in the Lower Mainland of B.C.

"Then you get the federal Department of Justice to waive the charge in
so you can plead guilty in downtown Vancouver because you will get a
conditional sentence and then you get house arrest and then you look
around and thinking hey, this is not a bad place to be," he said.

Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon, also a guest speaker, said he didn't
want to do any more "judiciary bashing" but said he is personally in
favor of mandatory minimum sentences.

"I don't think there's a police officer at this detachment who
wouldn't support minimum sentencing," he said.

He said he wanted more teeth in the Youth Criminal Justice Act so
police and the courts could deal with children of all ages.

"The fact that we can't charge a kid under 12 is a horrendous
problem," Toews said.

"They use 11-year-old kids to commit the crimes now because there is
nothing we can do. We can't even get a judge to get that kid into
court, we can't proceed under child welfare acts. The result is we are
waiting until they become criminals before we intervene."

Kelowna-Lake Country MP Werner Schmidt took the opportunity before a
full room to make his case for wider support of the Conservative
Party. He brought out a copy of the Gomery Report into corruption in
the Liberal Party of Canada and told the audience that the problems in
society are not just at home but also among our leaders. "This has
been a frustrating evening and one that made me very sad," he said.

"The reason I'm sad is that we are developing in this country a
culture of entitlement. Somehow we are entitled to have everybody look
after our problems and not we ourselves. We as Parliamentarians have
to accept a lot of responsibility.

"It begins at home but it also begins at the top of government because
we do follow the example of those who lead us-when they lead us
wrongly, we go wrongly."

With an federal election perhaps still possible before the end of the
year, the two-year crime wave in Kelowna can only help the chances of
electing another Conservative MP.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin