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BLACK-SHEEP COMMENTARIES by JAIL’S PURPOSE IS SUBVERTED May 23, 2007 - North Shore News - Vancouver, BC OH for those days when I wore striped trousers and imposed make-believe sentences. In my May 2nd column, I gave an abridged version of my testimony to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights concerning the inclusion of police representatives on Justice Advisory Committees. Having given unqualified support to police participation on vetting committees, I expressed dissatisfaction over today’s anything-but-jail boomer judges; claiming that there had been a generational shift in judicial attitude from tough-but-fair sentencing by judges made resolute in the times of the Great Depression and Second World War, to therapeutic sentencing by boomer judges – men and women who came of age in the 70’s in the effervescence of Pierre Trudeau’s utopian Just Society. My fellow attendee Edward Ratushny disagreed with me, saying “The idea that anything but jail should come first is a principle of sentencing, and I think a very sound principle. …” In a very narrow sense the professor was correct. He was referring to the controversial fifth-wheel at the end of section 718.2 of the Criminal Code which states that “all available sanctions other than imprisonment that are reasonable in the circumstances should be considered for all offenders, with particular attention to the circumstances of aboriginal offenders.” Yet much more than this escape-clause option is driving judges to craft so-called restorative sentences that have no relationship to the rising savagery of thugs, thieves, young offenders and predatory swindlers. Today’s judges are one of many facets of creeping liberalization of criminal justice. Another is Canada’s penitentiary/prison system. On Oct. 7, 1971, Canada’s solicitor general, Hon. Jean-Pierre Goyer, spoke to the House of Commons “to outline and explain the reforms that were undertaken a few months ago by the Penitentiary Service, and other reforms that are planned for the future. “For too long a time now, 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 protection of society. “Reforms are undertaken on the basis of two essential principles. Firstly, an inmate, sooner or later, will return to a normal life in our society and is basically entitled to have his human dignity, but also his rights as a citizen respected by us to the largest possible extent. Secondly, in order to have rehabilitation to be as successful as possible, we must take advantage of the participation from the community, both inside and outside our institutions, so as to have within our institutions a way of life that is as similar as possible to the normal life of a citizen. “With such principles, we hope to change in our institutions the climate of tension that results from useless coercion, obsolete policies, and to create in the old-style institutions a more relaxed atmosphere conducive to the rehabilitation of individual inmates. “We have therefore endeavoured to liberalize the system. “Our reforms will perhaps be criticized for being too liberal or for omitting to protect society against dangerous criminals. This new policy will probably involve some risk, but we cannot maintain a system which in itself can cause even more obvious dangers.” Goyer’s speech manifested constitutional malfeasance on the part of the federal government. It was an abdication of the paramount non-partisan duty of all members of every democratically elected government to protect their fellow citizens against violence and property crime. To sacrifice the protection of the public on the altar of rehabilitation of convicts was a breach of our most precious and ancient constitutional convention: that of a deemed social contract from which springs our criminal law and the duty of government to enforce it. Day after day over the past 40 years we have witnessed or experienced a continuous cave in to criminals by our penitentiary system and our criminal justice system, aided, abetted and facilitated by a too lax and liberal system of parole bringing about the despicable result of make-believe punishment and deterrence. And all the while victims of crime have been pulverized by Wizard-of-Oz secular restorationism engaged in fruitless attempts to reconfigure criminal minds. After Goyer resumed his seat in the House of Commons, Mr. Eldon M. Woolliams, a penal reformist, spoke. Here are several mind-numbing Woolliamisms: “First of all I want to congratulate the minister for realizing at last that crime is not just a sordid happening but rather a result of human behaviour brought about by our economic and social conditions which we have failed to change. “I hope the minister realizes that crime is not only the fault of the prisoner but the fault of society as well. Everyone is born as clean as a white piece of paper. It is society that creates the environment which leads to crime. “Can 7,000 or 8,000 prisoners in Canada turn over tonight in their little cots in the loneliness of their cells and say: something is going to be done for us; things will be better for us in the future.” It’s a wonder that Woolliams didn’t take his hare-brained theory over the last hurdle of disassociation from the real world of criminals by saying that if it wasn’t for those damn victims getting in the way, these thousands of little cots would be empty. The events of the last 40 years are beyond frivolous and they have caused an insidious increase in the likelihood of victimization. The proof is everywhere: Barbed wire and razor wire enclosing too many commercial properties; heavy duty bars and steel closures on too many homes following the horror of burglary. We are becoming “fortress Canada.” It is time to do more than sing the words “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.” It is time to fight our way back to law and order. Wallace G Craig – wallace-gilby-craig@realjustice.ca – NS News – May 23, 07 |
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