Well, Canada’s kid-glove treatment of violent criminals today — easy bail, soft sentencing, statutory release, early parole, special treatment for members of some minority groups, keeping the identities of young offenders secret even when they commit murder — didn’t happen by accident.
They were the inevitable result of criminal justice, prison and parole measures passed by Canadian federal governments starting in the 1970s.
These were initially implemented by the Liberal government of then prime minister
Pierre Trudeau, which openly acknowledged its intent was “to stress the rehabilitation of individuals rather than the protection of society.”
McKenzie (Randall McKenzie, 25, from Six Nations of the Grand River) was out on bail at the time of Pierzchala’s murder, after an arrest on several charges including assaulting a police officer and possessing a handgun.
Court records reveal his long and violent criminal history, including a lifetime firearms prohibition from previous armed robberies and other firearms offences.
I am strongly suspecting that Randall McKenzie is
not a registered firearms owner with a registered firearm in Canada. I know I’m assuming here, but…
Poilievre also accused the government of using the spike in violent crime as a means to push their controversial gun control measures that aim to stamp out crime by disarming Canada’s sport shooters and hunters.
Five decades later, Canadians continue to reap the whirlwind of those decisions with hardened criminals arrested, charged and released on bail to commit more crimes or, upon conviction, receiving early parole, making a mockery of sentences pronounced in court.
These principles were made clear by
Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government in an Oct. 7, 1971 address to Parliament by then solicitor general Jean-Pierre Goyer.
“The details of the constable’s murder are deeply troubling,” Polievre said. “This is the fifth police officer murdered since Septemberand is part of a 32 per cent increase in violent crime that has happened over the last seven years, and a 92 per cent increase in gang-related murders.”
(Seven Years? Did someone break a mirror back in 2015 or something?)
“For too long a time now,” Goyer said, “our punishment-oriented society has cultivated the state of mind that demands that offenders, whatever their age and whatever the offence, be placed behind bars. Even nowadays, too many Canadians object to looking at offenders as members of our society and seem to disregard the fact that the correctional process aims at making the offender a useful and law-abiding citizen, and not any more an individual alienated from society and in conflict with it.
“Consequently, we have decided from now on, to stress the rehabilitation of individuals rather than the protection of society … Our reforms will perhaps be criticized for being too liberal or for omitting to protect society against dangerous criminals. Indeed, this new rehabilitation policy will probably demand much striving and involve some risks …”
Poilievre said police officers often share stories about arresting the same suspects multiple times during their shifts.
“These easy catch-and-release bail policies are
found in Justin Trudeau’s Bill C-75,” Poilievre said, describing the legislation as a means for violent repeat offenders to more easily get bail.
The practical effect of this Liberal philosophy, endorsed by the opposition of the time, was to elevate rehabilitation of the offender — however faint the hope it would occur — above other purposes of sentencing such as denouncing unlawful conduct, deterrence and the protection of society. We’d have to lock up society as a whole for allowing this to happen back in 1971.
In subsequent decades, this became the model for Canada’s criminal justice system, adhered to by Liberal
and Progressive Conservative governments, reflected in bail, parole and sentencing decisions and in rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada, especially after Parliament’s passage of the Charter in 1982.
Canada’s permanent abolition of the death penalty in 1976 under
Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government was part of this philosophy, although in practical terms the last executions in Canada were carried out in 1962, when Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin were hanged in Toronto’s Don Jail for murder.
The Young Offenders Act, eventually replaced by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, with its dramatically reduced sentences and guarantee of anonymity even for those convicted of murder, was part of this philosophy.
Ditto statutory release, which automatically reduces the period of incarceration for most criminal offences by a third and parole, which makes a mockery of sentences pronounced at trial.
Canada’s kid-glove treatment of violent criminals today — easy bail, soft sentencing, statutory release, early parole, special treatment for members of some minority groups, keeping the identities of young offenders secret even when they commit murder — didn’t happen by accident. They were the...
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Full parole for many criminals today comes as early as one-third of their sentence. Unescorted temporary absences can begin when as little as one-sixth of the sentence served.
While the Conservative government of
Stephen Harper attempted to re-establish the importance of the denunciation of unlawful conduct, deterrence and the protection of society in sentencing, Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau has steadily eroded those efforts, scrapping mandatory minimum sentences for serious gun crimes — as has the Supreme Court of Canada — and making bail even easier to obtain than in the past.
So….like many things in today’s Canada, this appears to be another broken system. Is anyone willing (other than Stephen Harper who’s now out since 2015 when Canada last had a balanced budget) to attempt to do something about this?
Justin? Jagmeet? Justin/Jagmeet? Pierre Poilievre? Elizabeth May and who/what ever her Green co-captain is? Blanchet and the Bloc Québécois in their goal as the saviours of Canada?
'We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our police officers,' said the Conservative leader on the day Ontario police escorted home the body of a slain fellow officer
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