Harsher measures sought by province

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This article was published 21/01/2012 (5390 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Harsher penalties for thugs convicted of home invasions, carjackings and premeditated knife crimes are on Justice Minister Andrew Swan’s shopping list as he and his federal and provincial counterparts meet in Charlottetown next week.

Swan said Friday he will urge Ottawa to amend the Criminal Code to make home invasions and carjackings stand-alone offences to reflect the seriousness of the crimes.

“Both home invasions and carjackings, in my view, are serious breaches of people’s right to be safe,” he said.

At the same time, he’s seeking mandatory minimum sentences for premeditated knife crimes. An example would be someone who packs a knife with the intention of robbing a convenience store. “We think that’s something that represents a grave risk to the people of Manitoba,” Swan said.

The Manitoba minister is also seeking to make it a federal offence to wear body armour and to fortify buildings and vehicles.

Meanwhile, Swan is pleading with Ottawa to boost funding for legal aid. He said the federal government’s new get-tough-on-crime legislation, much of which Manitoba supports, will tax already stretched legal aid resources.

Ottawa used to fund 50 per cent of the legal aid budget. It now covers only 18 per cent of such costs in Manitoba, Swan said. Provincial officials say it would cost Ottawa $8.7 million to bring its share to 50 per cent on criminal cases alone.

Conservative justice critic Kelvin Goertzen was less than impressed with Swan’s tough-on-crime stance.

“I don’t think there’s been a federal government that’s been as motivated to make changes to the Criminal Code as the one that we have now under Stephen Harper,” he noted.

Goertzen said he finds it “a little bit rich” for Manitoba to be asking for changes from Ottawa when it’s not willing to improve its own justice record.

“Criminals don’t spend a lot of time thinking of what the mandatory minimum sentence might be if they don’t ever believe that they’re going to get caught,” the Steinbach MLA said of Manitoba’s “extremely low” clearance rate on crime.

And lengthy provincial waits to bring cases to trial don’t act as a deterrent to criminals either, he added.

By Friday afternoon, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews had caught wind of Swan’s requests.

At a news conference in Ottawa, Toews implied that he supported more mandatory sentences — although he didn’t make any promises on the issue.

Provincial justice ministers realize Ottawa’s crime-fighting policies are working, Toews said. “This will result in a safer Canada.”

The federal minister couldn’t resist a swipe at the NDP official opposition in Ottawa, which has not supported the mandatory minimums in recent federal crime bills.

“This is an NDP attorney general who is calling for more mandatory minimums,” Toews said of Swan. “This is certainly not in keeping with what his federal counterparts are saying.”

 

— with files from Mia Rabson

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca