Pubdate: Sun, 04 Dec 2005
Source: Penticton Herald (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.pentictonherald.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/664
Author: Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

TORIES PLEDGE STIFFER PENALTIES

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin took a break Saturday from the
eight-week federal election campaign, allowing Conservative Leader
Stephen Harper to once again set the daily news agenda by focusing on
crime and punishment

For the fourth consecutive day, Harper rolled out a key plank in his
platform, this time highlighting the drug-control section of the
party's criminal justice agenda with promises of mandatory prison
sentences, stiffer fines and an end of conditional sentences

"I want to talk about the values of a peaceful, orderly and safe
society, and a problem none of the other parties seem to care about --
the problem of crime and the threat it poses to our families and our
communities," Harper said at a recreation centre in Burnaby, B.C.

Among the Conservative promises:

- -- Mandatory, minimum sentences of at least two years for trafficking,
exporting, importing or producing heroin, cocaine and crystal meth, as
well as more than three kilograms of marijuana or hashish.

- -- Eliminating conditional sentences, or house arrest, for all
indictable drug offences.

- -- A commitment to not reintroduce legislation to decriminalize
marijuana.

- -- Make it harder to get the chemicals needed to make crystal meth,
such as ephedrine and cold remedies. Manitoba and Saskatchewan adopted
a similar strategy last month.

- -- Close safe-injection sites in Vancouver and elsewhere.

Several studies have shown minimum mandatory sentences add an enormous
cost burden to the corrections system without offering any clear deterrent.

But Harper said he wants to see concrete justice ideas that
work.

"I think common sense is that if you're serious about enforcing the
law, you provide real penalties," said Harper. "And the evidence I've
seen suggests that what works are penalties that are fairly certain,
not penalties that will not, in fact, be imposed."

The Liberals quickly tried to turn the tables on Harper.

The party issued a release stating the opposition parties, by forcing
this election campaign, effectively killed eight bills that would have
strengthened law enforcement in Canada.

Among those bills was a proposed law that would have established new
criminal offences and tougher sentences to target marijuana grow-ops.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said his party is alone in offering a balanced
approach to drug crime.

"We've got to get to the root causes of crime -- despair, poverty,
addiction -- in our communities," Layton said during a campaign stop
in Vancouver.

"That means we've got to put an equal emphasis on the prevention of
crime in the first place, as we put on dealing with the results of
crime at the end of the day."

Layton said the NDP would be coming out with its own criminal justice
platform soon.

But the softwood lumber dispute with the United States was his issue
of choice Saturday.

He repeated his party position that duties may be necessary on
Canadian energy exports heading south as retaliation for American
tariffs that remain on softwood imports.

"Nobody wants to have to do this," Layton told reporters.

"We're suggesting that if fairness isn't brought into the trade
relationship around softwood . . . you've got to take some action," he
added. "A self-respecting nation can't simply roll over and say, as
Mr. Martin has been saying, `I will continue to chatter at you if you
don't give us some fairness.' "

Layton rejected claims that an export duty on energy would hurt
Canada's oil and gas industry, arguing Canada provides "an enormous
percentage" of oil and gas to the United States.

He suggested the duty could be used to recoup the more than $5 billion
the U.S. has collected in softwood duties.

Since the writ was dropped Tuesday to kick off the winter campaign,
Harper has championed a special prosecutor for federal criminal
matters, a two-per-cent reduction in the GST and a health-care
wait-time guarantee.

At each turn he has come out with his message early, forcing other
leaders to respond before being able to shift the media's focus back
to their own message of the day.

But faced with an eight-week campaign, the leaders are no doubt
strategizing as much about pacing as they are about building momentum.

On Saturday, Harper met with local residents at the Burnaby recreation
centre and heard some of their horrifying experiences with drugs.

Lori, a recovering crystal meth addict who does not want her last name
used, said she doesn't vote and was contacted by his staff to attend
the event.

But she wasn't very positive on Harper's plan.

The 40-year-old Surrey resident still carries her inmate's card from
one of her many stints in jail, but is now unrecognizable when
compared to the shockingly thin, haggard brunette in the photo.

Lori hadn't been shown the details of Harper's drug crime platform and
wondered if it contained anything about recovery programs. It did not.

"If it's not in there, that's really going to make me angry," she
said, after offering her advice and sharing her story with Harper's
team. "I'd really like to know why he'd not say anything."

Conservative officials say Harper will clarify his stance on recovery
funding later.

Last summer, the Liberal government increased penalties for
processing, making and trafficking crystal meth to bring them in line
with those associated with heroin and cocaine.

The measures came under attack by some frontline social workers as
doing little to combat the problem with those other drugs.

Specially designated prosecutors also now deal with the most serious
cases and will speak to judges in sentencing about crystal meth.
Shortly after his announcement, Harper was asked to revisit an earlier
campaign theme.

In response to a reporter's question about private health care, Harper
suggested he would opt for private care rather than see his wife suffer.

"Well, I'll just say that as a father and a husband, you will do
whatever you need to do to take care of your family," Harper told
CKNW. When asked if that means he "would have gone private?" Harper
replied: "If that's what I had to do."

Harper was emphatic Friday when he rolled out his health-care plan
that "there will be no private, parallel system."

But he added that if elected prime minister, he would require
provinces to meet wait-time deadlines or patients could be sent to
other provinces or the United States to ensure timely care.

Martin's campaign tour was to resume today with a flight to St.
John's, N.L., for events Monday.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin