TORIES RAM THROUGH US-STYLE 'JUSTICE' LAWS

Thursday, May 10th at 1pm, 2007
Department of Justice (Ontario Regional Office)
130 King Street West, Suite 3400 (East of York Street and St. Andrew Station)

Speakers include:
Shaila Kibria (Black Youth Coalition Against Violence), Yolisa Dalamba (Executive Director of APUS, Toronto Coalition to Repeal Safe Schools Act and Reclaiming Our Children), John Clarke (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty), Doreen Silversmith (Cayuga Nation, Six Nations Confederacy, Women’s Action Against Racist Policing and No More Silence Coalition), Representative from No One Is Illegal-Toronto, Brian McLean (Criminology Professor, York University), Chris Harris (Black Action Defence Committee), Giselle Dias, (Prisoners HIV / AIDS Support Action Network, PASAN) and the Toronto Compassionate Club.

The Conservative Government is gearing up to expedite a cluster of "get-tough on crime" laws, which could go to the Senate as early as this week. The proposed legislation signals a major shift in our justice system, and this overhaul will mean dramatically more people incarcerated in our prisons, jails and detention centers. Far from providing safety, these punitive measures will further devastate communities of colour, First Nations communities, immigrants and refugees often racially profiled by law enforcement and already vastly over-represented in the courts and prison system.

Join us this Thursday to tell Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson and the Harper government that we oppose these unjust, costly and ineffective changes. With NDP support, the Tories are resurrecting Bill C-10, which creates several new mandatory minimum sentences for firearm offences and lengthens pre-existing minimums. Automatic prison terms remove judicial discretion and violate the principle that a sentence must be proportionate to the offence. When gun crime became prominent in the media on the heels of the death of a young white woman, the Tories took the opportunity to push their own political agenda. We question why the issue of gun violence is not raised when young black males are shot and killed, in particular when murdered by police. Political leaders routinely exclude the Black Community when developing solutions and this racist law is not the answer to systemic poverty and marginalization.

Bill C-9, which eliminates conditional sentencing for certain offences, is another top priority in the Harper agenda. A mechanism used to divert minor convictions away from prison, conditional sentences allow people to serve time in the community. This bill contradicts the principle of using least restrictive measures and violates section 718 of the Criminal Code that calls for imprisonment as a last resort, with particular respect to First Nations prisoners. According to the Department of Justice, property crimes account for 39% of conditional sentences. The impact of this law would be a dramatic swelling in the currently overburdened provincial system and backlogs in the courts as more people plead not-guilty. It is estimated that C-9 itself would require $1 billion in new prison construction with $250-$500 million in operating costs.

Overcrowding and inhumane conditions have led some judges to give people 3 days credit for every day they serve in pre-trial custody; Bill C-393 would prevent the courts from exercising this discretion.

Bill C-27 broadens the application of Dangerous Offender legislation by reducing the requirements for a finding of dangerousness. It allows for applications in cases of offences that are subject to a sentence of only two years or more (it is currently 10 years). Therefore someone who has engaged in relatively minor offences, such as break and enter, assault, assault police, may be designated a Dangerous Offender – which carries an indeterminate sentence (with no release date) upon 3 convictions. The bill also creates reverse onus; by removing the presumption of innocence it is up to the Defendant to prove that they are not dangerous. A defence would be especially challenging for low-income people given the barriers in obtaining legal representation and expert reports. Bill C-27 has been compared in many ways to the notoriously cruel ‘Three Strikes’ laws in California.

The passage of any one of the dozen bills before Parliament would be devastating and would further erode the rights of prisoners and their families. Other proposals include mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking (Bill C-320) and assault police (Bill C-352). Bill C-220 proposes the elimination of Statutory Release where prisoners are gradually reintegrated into the community; this bill would result in all federal prisoners serving an additional 1/3 more time. The Tories have furthermore vowed to crackdown on youth. They have hired pro-privatization Rob Sampson to conduct a review of federal prisons. Another concern is the Tories’ cancellation of harm reduction measures in prison such as the safer tattooing project, which means that more prisoners will die from preventable health related causes. Taser guns for prison guards are also being piloted at two federal prisons. The Tory law-and-order agenda is especially unconscionable in the context of a crime rate (including violent crime) that continues to steadily decline.
We question why the Tories have earmarked millions for law enforcement and prison construction if they really think these repressive policies will ‘deter’ crime. In the United States, prison rates skyrocketed over the last 30 years with the introduction of similar laws and today there are 2.3 million people in American prisons.

NOW is the time for us to tell ALL political parties that we don't need more prisons. Imagine if the $7 billion currently spent here on incarceration went to restoring cuts to education, housing, health care and more.

Please get involved!
-Endorse the statement below & join the coalition
-Come to the demonstration on Thursday, May 10th
-Sign and circulate the petition (attached in Word)

For more info:
The Justice Laws Coalition
justice_laws_coalition@yahoo.ca
www.pjac.org
________________________________________

We are writing to invite you to join the Justice Laws Coalition (JLC), which seeks to mobilize community groups in opposition to the punitive crime bills introduced by the Government. The proposed "get tough on crime" laws are unjust, costly and ineffective. If implemented, they will lead to further targeting of already over-policed communities and a drastic increase in the prison population with even greater over-representation of people of colour. The proposed laws will further the tradition of law enforcement that incarcerates First Nations people and persons with mental disabilities as a means of social control. We advocate that the money currently earmarked in the budget for law enforcement and the prison industry should instead be invested into community centers, health care and education alternatives that genuinely address the needs of our communities.

There are several anti-crime bills the Tories seek to expedite through the House of Commons. Bill C-10 imposes increased mandatory minimum sentences for firearms offences; Bill C-9 reduces the use of conditional sentencing (community supervision and conditional release); and Bill C-27 creates reverse onus and broadens the scope of who is designated a ‘Dangerous Offender’. Proposed legislation also eliminates the right of federal prisoners to Statutory Release, which is meant to gradually integrate prisoners back into the community during the last third of their sentence.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and the Harper Government are expediting the passage of their harsh law-and-order agenda and now, allied with the NDP, are resurrecting the draconian bills previously softened with amendments by the Opposition. Based on the experience of the United States, we have every reason to believe additional mandatory penalties will similarly deteriorate judicial discretion, generate wrongful convictions, and further devastate the African Canadian community by incarcerating young men at a disproportionate rate.

Prisons do not make our communities safer. We steadfastly oppose these repressive changes and demand that the Harper Government scrap the proposed cluster of justice bills in Parliament. While the Conservatives claim these laws will ‘deter’ crime, they have allocated millions of dollars towards the construction of new prisons. This move reveals the Harper Government’s thinly veiled agenda with regard to these bills, which aims to increase the prison population and funnel public funds into the prison industry.

If enacted, these laws will ensnare even more people into the prison industry, constituting a war on the poor and racialized bodies. The proposed changes are an affront to the Charter and offend the principles of equality and justice that are at the core of our democracy. This approach is especially unconscionable in the context of a crime rate that continues to decline. We call on all political parties to develop humane informed justice platforms based on genuine consultation.

Please email justice_laws_coalition@yahoo.ca to join and become informed about how we can resist the Government’s attempts to enact these repressive criminal (in)justice laws.

In Solidarity,
The Justice Laws Coalition (JLC)
justice_laws_coalition@yahoo.ca
www.pjac.org