Pubdate: Wed, 14 Mar 2012
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html
Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: James Mennie, The Gazette, Kevin Dougherty of The Gazette Quebec bureau contributed to this report. 

QUEBEC TEMPERS CRIME BILL'S EFFECTS

Parti Quebecois Calls New Federal Law a 'Defeat for Quebec,' And
Pushes Harper Government to Pick Up Province's Extra Costs

One day after the Conservative government adopted Bill C-10, its
controversial get tough-on-crime legislation, Quebec Justice Minister
Jean-marc Fournier announced on Tuesday a series of measures aimed at
softening the effects of the federal law on Quebec's youth justice
system.

And Fournier, who last November argued passionately against C-10
before a Commons justice and human rights committee, mused over just
how permanent the more contentious elements of omnibus bill would be.

"It is not because a law is adopted that it will be there for a
century," he said.

"When we share our expertise, our experience ... others will follow and
change will come to C-10.

"It's not for a politician sitting in an assembly to establish the
sanction for a crime. That was the kind of justice many centuries
(ago). We've got a system where we have judges, we have prosecutors,
we have lawyers. They know the facts. Not all cases are the same and
they've got to have the tools to adapt justice to the case."

The tools Fournier will provide for Quebec's justice system
include:

* Publishing the name of a juvenile charged with a serious offence only
in "exceptional" circumstances.

* Using an order in council to allow prosecutors to inform the court of
their decision not to seek adult sentencing for young offenders aged
16 years and older. C-10 allows the procedure to be applied to young
offenders 14 and older.

* Creating a drug-rehabilitation program that would give courts an
alternative to a minimum sentence in the case of non-violent crimes.

Fournier repeatedly reminded reporters that while the federal
government could adopt laws, the administration of justice was a
provincial jurisdiction, and Quebec possessed 40 years of experience
in dealing with youth crime based on the ideal that rehabilitation is
preferable to imprisonment.

"In Bill C-10, the concept of rehabilitation has been retained but its
importance has been diminished," he said. "The legal power we have (as
a province) is to add nuance to the manner C-10 is written ... to
conserve the idea of long-term protection for the public and to
conserve the concept of rehabilitation."

Fournier reiterated his support for certain sections of C-10, such as
pre-trial detention for young offenders charged with serious crimes.
But he also repeated his concerns that enforcing the legislation will
cost Quebec an additional $80 million annually, while the construction
of new prisons to house the anticipated influx of extra prisoners
created by the law would cost more than $700 million.

In Quebec City, Parti Quebecois MNA Bernard Drainville said C-10 is
one of a series of measures by the Conservative government that make
"a very, very strong case for Quebec's independence."

"It's a defeat for Quebec, it's a defeat for our values," Drainville
told reporters.

If Quebec was a country, the l aw would not apply, Drainville
said.

"Who will pay?" Drainville asked, pointing out that Fournier has said
Quebec would not pay for the Harper government's election promises,
and called on Ottawa to pony up the cash.

Quebec isn't the only province to complain about Bill C-10's price
tag. Ontario Premier Dalton Mcguinty has also said if the federal
government wants to get tough on crime, the federal government should
pay for it. The crime bill's cost to Ontario has been estimated at $1
billion.

And criticisms of the bill's provisions - explicit and implicit - also
have come from Canada's legal establishment.

Hours after Fournier's announcement, the Quebec Bar Association
described the adoption of C-10 as "a step backward for Canadian
criminal law."

"Canadian justice is i n mourning today," said Claude Provencher, the
Bar Association's director-general. "The very philosophy of our
Canadian penal system has been amended ... before carrying out so
major a change, a public debate in due form should have been held."

Last month, an Ontario Superior Court justice ruled that a mandatory
minimum three-year sentence imposed on a man arrested while posing
with a loaded firearm in front of a laptop webcam constituted cruel
and unusual punishment. In that case, the mandatory minimum sentence
was contained in earlier firearms legislation tabled by the
Conservatives. But mandatory minimum sentences for other offences are
also included in Bill C-10. Civil liberties and lawyers groups have
also complained that the Conservative crackdown on crime is occurring
at a time when crime rates are plummeting and that the bill favours
incarceration over rehabilitation. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.