Pubdate: Tue, 20 May 2014
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456

A BLOW TO THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Of all the many parts of the federal justice budget, the Conservative
government has found exactly the wrong one to cut.

A Canadian Press report last week revealed that in April, $1.2 
million was removed from the department's research budget - 20 per 
cent of the total. As a result, eight researchers have lost their 
jobs. The dual purpose of the cut, in the convoluted, vaguely ominous 
words of Justice Minister Peter MacKay: "To ensure that we bring 
value to hard-earned taxpayers' dollars" and that "research is . . . 
undertaken to obtain information to support priorities of government."

But if the government wants to reduce the justice budget it ought to
heed the evidence, not eliminate it. Since the Conservatives took
power in 2006, justice spending has risen by more than 30 per cent,
even as the crime rate has continued its steady, two-decade-long,
largely demographics-driven decline. Mandatory minimum sentences,
harsh penalties for marijuana possession, a crackdown on young
offenders, the phasing out of house arrest - these and other aspects
of the Conservative government's tough-on-crime approach to justice
policy is producing a bloated and crushingly costly prison system.

And yet an ever-growing body of evidence, including world-leading
research by the department of justice, suggests these policies drain
the public purse without making us any safer. Seen from one very
narrow perspective, then, the cuts provide a sensible escape route
from a political quandary. The more we know about Stephen Harper's
expensive, unjust and ineffective tough-on-crime policy, the less
sensible it seems. The government's solution: know less.

This is nothing new. As New Democrat MP Francoise Boivin pointed out
in Question Period last week, it seems the government is now doing to
justice what it has already done to science. "It cut the funding
because it does not like the facts," Boivin said. "So what exactly
were the facts that the government objected to so strongly?"

In fact, the Harper government has a long history of deep-sixing data
that doesn't jibe with its agenda. Want to aggressively pursue
resource development? Better cut environmental research. Want to
further fray our social safety net? Easier done without the long-form
census or the National Council on Welfare. Want to explain away
persistently high unemployment with exaggerated talk of a skills gap?
Best get rid of that pesky labour market research.

It's an unenlightened, undemocratic approach to government that has
earned us an embarrassing international reputation. A recent report on
good governance by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a renowned German
think-tank, found that "the quality of governance provided by the
government of Canada has deteriorated" since the Conservatives formed
a majority government in 2011. In particular, the report lambastes the
Harper administration for its "lack of commitment both to the use of
evidence in its decision making and to the provision of high-quality
data."

The choice represented by the latest research cuts is not one of
fiscal prudence or conservative values, as it is being framed, but
once again of planned ignorance now and for the future. And so we will
make less informed decisions and be less informed about their
high-stakes consequences. What a shame.

The rebuilding of our research capacity - and with it our ability to
make wise policy choices - will be a much longer and more difficult
process than the dismantling has been. It's unfortunate that, if
history is any indication, that uphill trek back into the light will
begin no earlier than when the polls close late next year. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D