Scanned, recopied or Internet copy, if there are errors, please e-mail me with corrections: Opening comments: More at the end. Toronto Star - Mar. 14, 2007 - By Susan Delacourt, Ottawa Bureau Chief Dion's law-and-order strategy OTTAWA–Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is promising to pour millions of dollars into hiring police officers and Crown attorneys, as well as a crackdown on gun and Internet crime, when he rolls out his law-and-order platform today in Mississauga. Accused repeatedly by Conservatives of being "soft on crime," Dion will fire back this morning with a substantial shopping list of measures Liberals would take to improve public safety. The list, obtained by the Star, includes: - More money for provinces to hire municipal police officers. - Reverse-onus bail hearings for people arrested on gun crime, which would require the arrested to justify their release on bail. - Setting up a fund to help improve security at places of worship for "at-risk communities." Dion will also offer the Conservatives help from the Liberals in pushing through Parliament the measures for reverse-onus bail conditions on gun crimes – an offer that he doesn't expect them to accept, because he says the Tories are focused only on tougher sentencing as a way to combat crime. "The Conservatives' crime policies are more about scoring political headlines than making our streets safer," Dion states in the advance copy of the speech obtained by the Star. "Victims of crime don't care about politics or headlines. They just want to know that criminals will be stopped, caught and punished." The Tories and Liberals have been locked in battle for several months at the Commons committee examining the Conservatives' proposed legislative crackdown on crime. In the end, the Liberals joined the Bloc Québécois and New Democrats in stripping down all the Tory measures on tougher sentencing and sending the bills back to the Commons totally rewritten. But Dion is dangling the reverse-onus measures for gun crime as something on which the Liberals could co-operate, especially because it addresses the intimidation factor that Toronto police have cited as a major impediment to investigating and making arrests after shooting incidents. "So-called `reverse-onus bail hearings,' requiring the accused to justify their release, have been called for by police, crown attorneys and community groups across the country. I strongly support that push," Dion will declare in today's speech. "This change will make it harder for gun-carrying criminals to intimidate witnesses and terrorize their community while they await trial. Most of all, it means more convictions." Dion will also be arguing that tougher sentencing is largely ineffective – that "in the U.S., states with longer jail times saw crime fall by less than states that didn't." Just last week, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant wrote a letter to Dion, which became public, advising that the Liberals had to present a tough position on law and order. Bryant said it was intended as constructive advice, not criticism. Dion will give a nod to Bryant in today's speech, praising Ontario for "leading the way" on measures that break through the bureaucracy and police red tape that often hampers criminal investigations on guns and gangs. Dion will also accuse the Tories of standing in the way of justice with their controversial approach to the judiciary. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has acknowledged that the judicial-selection process is being changed to ensure more judges share the Conservatives' approach to law and order. "The Conservatives have set out on a divisive, American-style campaign to stack the bench," Dion says in the advance copy of the speech. "As a result, appointments are left unfilled; the backlog of cases continues to grow; and criminals are not being convicted fast enough. Our Charter of Rights guarantees us a right to a fair trial in a reasonable period of time. Not appointing judges undermines that right, and could lead to even fewer convictions. For the safety of our communities, this must stop. "I call on the Conservative government to let the courts do their job, and start appointing highly qualified judges, free from ideological interference." Home Page - Main Table of Contents - Back up a page - Back to Top [COMMENTS BY DON B. - ] |
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