Pubdate: Wed, 26 Oct 2005
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Kerry Williamson, Calgary Herald
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)

STIFFER RULES TARGET VIOLENT CRIME

Ottawa to Limit Conditional Sentences

Criminals who commit serious assaults will no longer be eligible for
conditional sentences such as house arrest or community service under
tougher rules set to be introduced federally this week.

Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler is expected to announce
legislation altering the guidelines of the often-controversial
conditional sentencing rules as early as Thursday.

The new rules would limit the ability of judges to sentence offenders
to time served outside of jail for crimes involving serious injury.

Alberta has been pushing hard for the tougher rules for at least five
years, and the provincial justice minister says it's long overdue.

"We have been saying for a long time that people who commit serious
personal injury assaults and the like ought to do some time," Ron
Stevens told the Herald in an interview Tuesday.

"And that's what we are talking about here -- changing the rules to
effect that result."

Stevens added that the province will now push for mandatory minimum
prison sentences for serious drug offences -- such as running a grow
op or meth lab -- and firearms possession associated with drug crimes.

A spokesman for the federal Justice Department confirmed that an
announcement on the issue of conditional sentencing is in the works,
but would not discuss specifics.

"We think that one of the areas that the justice system has been too
lenient on are the sentences that people get for grow ops, for the
manufacture of meth for trafficking," said Stevens, who will raise the
issue at next month's meeting of federal, provincial and territorial
governments in Whitehorse.

"This is another way of dealing with it, to ensure that people who are
engaged in the manufacturing of meth or in grow ops do some time."

The federal government was expected to table a bill implementing the
widely demanded limits this month, a bill that would likely pass if
the government can win the support of the Bloc Quebecois and NDP.

Alberta first raised the issue of changes to conditional sentencing in
2001, later garnering support from other provinces. Stevens again
raised the issue with Cotler at a federal, provincial and territorial
governments meeting in January.

"We believe that the federal justice minister will be proceeding with
something that everyone can live with," said Stevens. "It will be a
significant improvement over the current situation."

Art Hanger, Conservative MP for Calgary Northeast and a staunch
justice critic, questioned whether the impending changes to
conditional sentencing were anything more than electioneering.

Hanger, a former Calgary policeman, said the government should
"eradicate" conditional sentences altogether.

"People are extremely skeptical, in fact some of them are outraged, by
these sentences that are handed down, so I would just like to see it
eliminated," Hanger told the Herald from Ottawa.

"I just think the whole provision has really brought that whole
sentencing structure into question by the average person. They don't
feel confident that the courts are looking after their interests as
far as security is concerned."

Conditional sentencing has upset many since it was introduced in
Canada in 1996.

In many cases, such sentencing has been overturned. This week alone,
Alberta's highest court overturned two conditional sentences, instead
sending two men to jail.

On Monday, the Alberta Court of Appeal sent Patrick William Coulthard,
26, to prison for beating his pregnant ex-girlfriend at her Lethbridge
apartment on Nov. 16, 2001, after she refused to get an abortion.

Then on Tuesday, the court overturned a conditional sentence against
Gordon Oliver Bazinet, sending him to jail for seriously stabbing a
Kelowna, B.C., man after two groups spilled out of a northwest Calgary
bar nearly three years ago.

"When you hear people talk about the justice system and say it's not
living up to their expectations, often it's along these lines," said
Stevens, referring to judges handing down conditional sentences in
cases involving violence. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake