Pubdate: Wed, 13 Mar 2007
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2007, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Patrick Brethour and Campbell Clark

IN A COUNTERING MOVE, DION GETS TOUGH ON CRIME

VANCOUVER and OTTAWA -- Seeking to blunt Conservative attacks that he 
is soft on crime, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion will unveil his own 
law-and-order script today -- including hundreds of millions of 
dollars to put thousands more police on Canadian streets.

The Opposition Leader, who will announce those measures in a Toronto 
speech, will also offer support for tougher bail measures, according 
to an excerpt of his text obtained by The Globe and Mail.

And in Vancouver yesterday, Mr. Dion said a Liberal government would 
also act to improve how the justice system deals with violent 
criminals who serve their sentences and are released into the 
community, rather than imprisoned indefinitely as dangerous offenders.

Mr. Dion's counteroffensive on crime comes a day after Prime Minister 
Stephen Harper announced his government's latest environmental 
funding -- aimed at eroding the Liberal edge on green issues.

In Vancouver, Mr. Dion gave a hint of his law-and-order agenda, 
saying he is taking a "tough and smart" approach to fighting crime.

Last week, The Globe and Mail reported that Ontario Attorney-General 
Michael Bryant had written a position paper urging the federal party 
to scrap an approach to crime "stuck in the summer of love." Instead, 
the paper favoured a strategy that more strongly emphasized tough 
measures, including a reverse-onus clause for some crimes -- in which 
defendants must prove they should be released.

Mr. Dion appears to have taken that advice to heart, saying yesterday 
in Vancouver that fighting crime will be a top priority for any 
government he leads. "We can't build a strong Canada if Canadians 
feel unsafe in their communities," he said. In his speech today, he 
will commit the Liberals to supporting reverse-onus bail for gun crimes.

The Conservative government has already tabled a bill calling for 
reverse-onus bail in the House of Commons, although it has yet to be 
passed through the Commons justice committee.

Mr. Dion will assert that the Liberals support tougher sentences for 
some crimes, but argue that more efforts to "catch and convict" 
criminals through better policing is more effective at cutting crime.

"The most effective way to protect our homes and our rights is to 
catch and convict more criminals. When a potential criminal believes 
he won't be caught -- or, if he is caught, he won't be convicted -- 
he's more likely to commit the crime," Mr. Dion's text states.

"There's no question that sentences are an important part of the 
solution: Serious crimes should carry serious penalties. But fighting 
crime with longer sentences alone doesn't work," Mr. Dion's text states.

Yesterday in Vancouver, he criticized Mr. Harper for failing to 
deliver on a promise to put 2,500 more municipal police officers on 
the streets of Canadian cities.

"He talks the talk, but does not walk the walk," Mr. Dion said. "To 
date, he has not provided a single dollar for additional municipal 
police on our streets. Not one dollar."

He said Mr. Harper puts politics ahead of policy when it comes to 
fighting crime. "His only game is to try to describe the opposition, 
as he calls it, soft."

Mr. Dion will sound that theme again today in Toronto, and will 
promise to provide funds for those 2,500 officers immediately upon 
taking office.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman