Stephen Harper's Conservatives pledged today to put forward a new bill restrict the use of house arrest, taking a second crack after the opposition watered-down their initiative – and this time threatening an election if it is blocked.
It was the second straight day where Mr. Harper announced a crime measure that carried an all-or-nothing threat that the opposition would have to pass it or face an election.
In 2006, the newly-elected Conservatives put forward a bill that would remove the option for judges to order conditional sentences – often a form of house arrest – for any crime that carried a maximum sentence of 10 years or more.
But that list included crimes like forgery and fraud, and the opposition, arguing that jail time might not always be warranted for such offences, changed the bill that passed in 2007, so that house arrest was removed just for serious personal injury crimes.
Today, Mr. Harper re-loaded by insisting that if re-elected on Oct. 14, his government would cut off house arrest for a specific list of 30 additional offences, including breaking and entering, arson, theft, drink driving causing bodily harm, and some drug charges.
Mr. Harper's aides said the Conservatives would present the bill as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition to the opposition, even if it is a minority parliament.
Mr. Harper said that he believes the measures are popular with ordinary Canadians, and even if he wins a minority government, he will use public opinion to dare the opposition to defeat the measures.
“When we get elected on a mandate, and that mandate, particularly in the area of criminal justice is overwhelmingly supported by the population of Canada, yes, we are going to use public opinion as a tool to get our criminal justice legislation through the House of Commons,” he said.
The Conservatives said it was difficult to obtain statistics on how many people are given conditional sentences for the 30 offences on their list. They said 11,000 people served conditional sentences in 2006, but the 30 offences make up a small fraction of those in the criminal code.
Mr. Harper also said there will be costs for putting more people in jails, and his government will negotiate compensation with the provinces because many of the extra inmates will be sent to provincial jails. (Sentences of less than two years are served in provincial jails.)
Some critics have contended that removing conditional sentences will have little real impact on deterring crime, because judges will balk at sending an accused to jail if they feel the crime does not warrant it; some will get short jail terms, rather than longer house arrest, or no time at all. Even without conditional sentences, judges can still hand down suspended sentences, or probation.
But Mr. Harper said that those who level such criticisms – and those who criticized the proposal he made Monday to adopt adult sentences for youths 14 and over who commit serious violent crimes – are soft-on-crime advocates from ivory towers.
“Obviously some people don't agree with our approach to criminal justice. Those are the people who advised soft-on-crime policies for 30 years, and yes, we believe they are wrong,” he said.
“We are acting upon the recommendation of people who deal with these problems, provincial governments and attorneys-general, the police – the vast majority of police and law-enforcement officials, victims of crime, and ordinary people who have organized criminal-justice groups because of the deficiencies in the system.
“That's who we're listening to, not people who work in ivory towers but people who actually work on the street and deal with crime on a day-to-day basis.”
Week 3 of the campaign
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