The Harper omnibus crime bill is a pervasive example of Governments inability to address the real problems in society, instead pushing ahead with band-aid measures that have already been proven ineffective and actually counter-productive in many cases. The omnibus bill combines 9 different crime legislation sections into one bill, for which Marijuana crimes are treated as more offensive to public safety than child rapists. Yes, a marijuana grower will face more jail time than a child rapist under this bill. Other examples of measures planned to be implemented under this bill are:
- Implementation of mandatory minimum sentences
- An ending to various conditional sentences, including property crime and serious crimes.
- Ending early release for many types of criminals
The bill is pretty much guaranteed to be passed by parliament. The costs have not yet even been finalized, however estimates are very high, with much of the financial burden being placed on provincial governments. Harper has also said that the provinces will be constitutionally required to implement the bill's measures when it receives royal assent.
If there is one thing to understand in this article, it is that policies focused around locking people up do not increase public safety. This has been proven again, and again and again.
If it did, the United States would have the safest streets in the world....
With less than 5% of the worlds population, the United States claims almost 25% of the worlds prisoners. In August of this year, US prison population topped 2.4 million people. Yet the US still continues to struggle with a stubbornly high crime rate among industrialized nations.
Even Texas Conservatives are telling us that this "tough on crime" approach will not work. Texas, as well as various other states have already tried this approach, with a failure in result always prevailing. What a responsible Prime Minister we have, one that rejects statistical and anecdotal evidence when making decisions with his cabinet members. Can this really be supported? I think that argument would be incredibly difficult to make.
The truth is that this move is ideological. It is not grounded in evidence or fact, nor does it have to be. Government talk has always been comprised of several cause and effect statements, most often without the knowledge or any kind of evidence to support that position. One only has to watch a Government sponsored commercial, or watch some snippets of mainstream news, to understand that government leaders do not need evidence or expertise in any kind of field to get their correlating policy objectives to resonate in the minds of the public. They need a good smile, a simple cause and effect statement, and some candour driven dialogue to finish.
Harper is not going to be convinced. He has his own agenda, and it unfortunately does not include social health or safety. The fact is that this crime bill is rooted in neo-conservative doctrine, whereby the economic benefits of imprisonment are far more important than taking a step back and addressing the human disparities and their systemic creators that cause crime in the first place. How effective is a solution that doesn't actually solve what it set out to solve? This crime bill is a war on the public, used to increase employment and financial gain in the economic landscape of prison construction. It targets the vulnerable without addressing the causes of that targeted offence. It is like finding a rotten apple on your bedroom floor, and instead of addressing where it came from or taking it somewhere where it needs to be, just throwing it under your bed. The stench persists, the problem still prevalent. Same goes with this crime bill, it solves nothing.
Harpers crime bill is an economic jump-starter disguised as a triumph in public safety.
Yeah a positive economic boost could positively affect society. No doubt. Employment in corrections and construction will skyrocket, providing a standard of living for those who are awarded jobs.
This is only one dimension of the discussion, however.
For example: Say I go down the street and break every single window in sight as well as damage doors, locks, and other private property. Now think about what happens thereafter. The economic multiplier begins to accelerate. Window companies are praising me, for they gained much business repairing windows. Door companies as well as their tertiary counter-parts gain business to replace doors, with locksmiths experiencing a mini-boom for the week(s) after the incident. Oil companies gain business from the gas it took to both drive to the site of damage, as well as the operation of the various machinery types used to repair my damage. Food companies in the area would likely experience an increase in sails, as the numerous amounts of workers in the area require food energy to keep working. Let's be honest, not everybody brings their own lunch to work...
At first glance, I could be hailed as a local business hero.
But then real questions become: At what cost did my decision have on everybody else. Did I really do good? For all the companies I helped, how many did I hurt? How many assets did I unknowingly steal from insurance companies hit with large pay-outs? And the businesses I hit, how did it affect their profits?
As demonstrated, we must be careful how we measure our leaders political decisions. Especially when it involves the social environment.
There is no evidence that this crime bill will positively affect public safety, which is the primary claimed reason this bill is being pushed through in the first place. We must see it for what it is. It is a war on the people, for economic benefit. The recurrence of government sponsored P3 projects in Canada suggest to me that Harper will do his best to push privatization of these services on the people as well. Just another ideological policy goal common among neo-conservatives. We should be especially wary about the possibility of a private prison system, for it to has it's various examples of negative social effects.
The Conservative Government has even rejected the consideration of mental illness when sentencing individuals.
This is a warning to the people. Do not let this government fool you into thinking spending billions on space for criminals will deter crime in any meaningful way. Just another example of the stupidity of this bill lies in the fact that the crime rate in Canada has been falling for decades, with it falling to the lowest rate since 1973 this year. Our media's effect on portraying a more dangerous society even when there isn't one, is a different story entirely, and has it's place in another article. But the facts speak for themselves:
This bill is destructive, demonstrably counter-effective, and an ideological war on the citizens of the Canada. It is an insane attempt to replicate the already tried-and-failed policies of our neighbours to the south, with the burden of failure surely to be placed on us. We are wasting our time building prisons, as rehabilitation and social improvement policies are really the types of policies we should be exploring; that is, if our goal is to actually address the causes of crime and genuinely take steps toward preventing it.
"If passed, C-10 will take Canadian justice policies 180 degrees in the wrong direction, and Canadian citizens will bear the costs" - Tracy Velazquez, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy institute.
Written by: Shelby Bouchard
Follow me on Twitter: @SBtheradical
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