Pubdate: Mon, 24 Jan 2005
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Cristin Schmitz, CanWest News Service

JUSTICE MINISTERS READY THEIR WISH LISTS

Criminals who use syringes as weapons should be punished as severely as 
those who use guns, say provincial justice ministers who are also lobbying 
Ottawa to create a new crime of "inhalant trafficking" and to boost 
penalties for drunk drivers who ride with children.

The three novel proposals are part of a packed agenda that the provincial 
and territorial ministers responsible for justice will pursue today and 
tomorrow in Ottawa during their annual meeting with their federal 
counterpart, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.

Topping the list of federal reforms urgently sought by the provinces is the 
abolition - or at least the severe restriction - of the availability of 
conditional sentencing. Conditional sentences like house arrest, curfews, 
electronic monitoring and other alternatives to incarceration can be 
imposed by judges for offenders deemed not dangerous who would otherwise be 
jailed for less than two years. Most provinces want people who commit 
violent crimes - or offences that result in death - to be ineligible for 
conditional sentences.

Other provincial priorities include: increasing federal funding for 
programs that aim to rehabilitate young offenders; making motor vehicle 
theft an indictable offence; closer monitoring of high-risk offenders after 
they are released from prison; the creation of a national "Amber Alert" 
network linking existing provincial notification systems for high-risk 
child abductions; enhanced penalties for the production and sale of the 
drug crystal meth; and raising the age of consent for sexual activity to 
16, from 14.
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