harper

By Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service

OTTAWA — The head of Canada's prison system says there will be "major construction initiatives" in the coming years to cope with federal legislation to imprison more offenders longer — an assertion backed by new spending estimates showing a 43 per cent increase in penitentiary capital costs next year.

Don Head, commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, set the stage for prison expansion in a recent e-mail, obtained by Canwest News Service.

In a brief note to staff sent on Dec. 23, Head announced changes to the senior ranks of the prison system "to best prepare itself to implement many of the changes associated with several of the pieces of legislation that will result in a growth of our inmate population."

By John Hutton, Winnipeg Sun

Despite having spent most of last year arguing that his “tough on crime” agenda was urgently needed, Stephen Harper killed off most of it when he prorogued Parliament.

This means the legislation will have to be re-introduced and debated all over again over the next few months.

It is also a second chance for Canadians to see that his initiatives aren’t going to accomplish much, but they are going to cost taxpayers a lot of money.

Harper’s agenda involves increasing the amount of time people have to serve in jail or prison (at taxpayer expense) by imposing more minimum sentences, and making it harder for inmates to get parole.

More time, he argues, should equal less crime. It’s a simple solution and like most simple solutions to complex problems, it doesn’t work.

In real life, there is little correlation between crime rates and sentence lengths. Most people who break the law don’t stop to consider the consequences; they act on impulse, they may be under the influence or they don’t think they’ll get caught. Whatever the case, stiffer sentences do not stop people from breaking the law.

By Amber Hildebrandt, CBC News

Drunk driving and drug possession charges were dropped against former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer in court Tuesday, but he pleaded guilty to a lesser offence of careless driving.

Jaffer, 38, was ordered to pay a $500 fine within a month. He also donated $500 to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, his lawyer said.

An agreed statement of fact read by Crown lawyer Marie Balogh said that last Sept. 10, an Ontario Provincial Police constable clocked Jaffer driving 93 kilometres an hour in a 50 km/h speed zone in Palgrave, northwest of Toronto.

The village is in the southern Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey held by his wife, federal Tory cabinet minister Helena Guergis.

Jaffer said he had consumed two beers two hours earlier and was travelling home to Angus, Ont., from Toronto, the statement said. The constable said Jaffer failed his breathalyzer test.

Harper’s tough-on-crime policy may just hurt Aboriginal women

Prime Minister Stephen Harper ushered in five new senators at the end of January to help solidify his tough-on-crime policy, but tough on crime might just mean being tougher on some of Canada’s most marginalized people.

For the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s Sisters in Spirit (SIS) initiative, the new appointments did cause some alarm as stacking the Senate means that the Conservative’s legislative law-and-order agenda gets a right of way. The only problem is that this might mean more policing and under protecting Canada’s Aboriginal women.

By. HARRIS MACLEOD, Hill Times

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his recent Senate appointments would help make Canada a safer place by allowing his government' s justice legislation to pass into law unchanged, but with the Independent Senators now holding the balance of power things aren't likely to be much different.

The government introduced 17 law-and-order bills last year, of which three were passed into law, and the rest died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued on Dec. 30. Of the three bills that were before the Upper House two were still making their way through the normal legislative process, and one was amended by the Liberal Senators with the support of four of the five Independents, with one absent due to illness.

By. Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist

Pick your cause -- democracy, seal slaughter, oilsands, safe-injection site, saving Jordan River or medical cannabis.

All were represented yesterday at a diverse demonstration at the legislature, where about 300 protesters chanted and waved placards, hoping to briefly catch the eye of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Security was not as heavy as some had expected, with only a handful of police keeping watch over the protest.

However, demonstrators had no chance of getting close to Harper as he was whisked away in a motorcade while they lined the driveway chanting "Democracy Now" and "Whose house? Our house."

The protest was spearheaded by the Victoria chapter of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament with the aim of showing Harper that Canadians are angry about his decision to suspend democracy, said organizer Melissa Farrance.

"We want to show him the way back to Parliament so he can get back to work," she said.

by Jonathan Ryan, The MUSE

The proroguing of Parliament has been all over the news lately and whether or not you believe that Mr. Harper has the right to use the option to prorogue parliament the way he has, one thing is certain: He has not been on vacation.

With the appointment of five new senators, Mr. Harper has tipped the balance of the senate further towards the political right. Now, it’s time to dust off some old plans.

You see, conservatives (and I mean conservatives in general, not just the political party) are a lot like communists. They’re both obsessed with undertaking courses of action that have been proven to be ineffective (often highly ineffective) in the past.