CANADIAN POLITICS AND LEGISLATION: Police chief says Tory omnibus crime bill needs to be part of balanced approach

December 5, 2011

Dale McFee, President of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, answers questions today.

OTTAWA - An omnibus crime bill set to pass in the House of Commons today needs to be balanced by crime-prevention efforts, says the head of a major police organization.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police supports the Conservatives' multi-part bill because it deals with serious crimes, said the association's president, Chief Dale McFee.

Among other things, the bill increases penalties for sexual offences against children and ends the use of house arrest for violent crimes.

"The reality is we're not going to arrest our way out of our troubles but we're not going to stop arresting," he told a news conference.

"When we're dealing with serious crime, there's quite frankly some people that need to go to jail but there's also a lot of people that early intervention and prevention will go a long ways and save lots of money and obviously be more efficient in achieving the results at that end.

"And I think, unless we do both, quite frankly, we're missing a piece."

McFee says he hopes to speak with the government about the prevention piece going forward.

The Safe Streets and Communities Act bundles together nine different bills into one sweeping piece of legislation that's been one of the more controversial pieces of the fall parliamentary session.

The Conservatives say they were handed a mandate to make Canada safer, yet the crime rate in the country is at record-low levels and a Statistics Canada study released last week says the vast majority of Canadians — 93 per cent — feel safe from crime.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Bar Association has suggested the bill is a waste of taxpayers' money that will result in bulging prisons and overload an already-heated justice system.

The provinces aren't unanimous. Quebec and Ontario are upset about the cost of implementing the new changes, while Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick and British Columbia say the changes are needed.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said he and his department continue to meet with their provincial counterparts to discuss the impact of the legislation.

"I think that’s important to get their input on — on all these initiatives and the initiatives that we’ll take forward," he said at a morning news conference.

Some victims'-rights advocates are also applauding the bill.

"We already carry a life sentence on our backs, handed to us without the privilege of neither judge nor jury," said Elizabeth Pousoulidis, president of a Quebec victims' group, who appeared with the justice minister.

"We encourage our Government of Canada, we encourage our country to continue being tough on crimes and putting the safety of its citizens, of us all, in equal importance as the right of criminals."

Opposition parties say the crime bill has been fast-tracked without proper study, and attempted to introduce 88 amendments last week. All were voted down.

Then the Conservatives were accused of being asleep at the switch, trying at the last minute to get their own amendments into the bill after rejecting similar changes at committee.

The Speaker ruled them out of order, leaving it up to the Senate to make any further changes.

Liberal MP Mark Garneau said the imminent passage of the bill marks a bad day for Canada.

"Crime bill represents the triumph of the politics of fear over intelligent and enlightened policy to reduce crime," he said on Twitter.

Nicholson said the time for talk is over.

He said the justice committee heard from over 50 witnesses and, given that some of the bills contained in the legislation have been introduced multiple times, they've been subjected to ample study.

"The time for action is now," Nicholson said. "Canadians have given us a strong mandate to build a strong, safer Canada."

The election that resulted in the Conservatives' majority was triggered by their last attempt to introduce omnibus crime legislation.

The Tories had delayed releasing the total cost of that bill, for which the Speaker found them in contempt of Parliament, setting the stage for the non-confidence motion which toppled their minority government.



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