Canada: Feds Slam British Columbia Judges Soft Stance on Crime

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Canada: Feds Slam British Columbia Judges Soft Stance on Crime

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Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

British Columbia's Chief Provincial Judge Hugh Stanfield, the Criminals "Patron Saint of the Crying Game", lashed out at Federal Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day for remarks made by Minister Day over British Columbia's Justice systems lackadaisical approach to criminals in what seems like a crime a minute in the Lower Mainland. Judge Stanfield in his quest for excuses in that Jail for criminals is not the answer, versus Minister Days retort is Book em and Jail em and throw away the key.

Apparently Judge Stanfield's statement to Day on Judges handling 100,000 criminal cases every year in the lower mainland must mean British Columbia Justice System releases far more criminals than it jails with some criminals standing before his Judgeship over 70-80 times.

If British Columbia's Judges as they say are hitting a 100,000 criminal cases a year in what seesm to be an never ending Catch and Release program we have a problem Now Public Readers.  Couple this with a total population in British Columbia of 4 million, what we have is 0.025% of the population is involved in criminal activity. That is not taking into account of numerous repeat offenders.

My Final Thought

Based on my above estimate, what we have here is a National Friggin State of Emergency. The BC Justice system has some serious explaining to do. We have laws in this country where Justice and the corresponding offence is to be meted for each particular crime as stated in the criminal code.  Apparently BC Judges are taking the interpretation of the laws sentences into their own hands resulting in different sentences in BC for the same offence.  If I were Day, I would be handing out Pink Slips faster than you could say "G'Day" and don't let the Judges Chambers door hit you unemployed Judges in the ass on the way out!.

 Below is the Story in the Media

A high-powered war of words has erupted over appropriate sentencing for criminals.

Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Hugh Stansfield, B.C. Provincial Court chief judge, are locking horns over whether career criminals get too easy a ride from judges.

In an online commentary to his constituents last week, Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla) blasted B.C. judges for handing out short jail sentences, particularly for repeat offenders.

"Especially in some courts in the Lower Mainland, there seems to be a trend, if not a rule, that the more crimes you get busted for, the less jail time you get hit with," Day wrote.

He said unnamed police chiefs have complained to him that many offenders have been convicted "up to 70, 80 or even 90 times!"

"Judges seem to give these prolific law-breakers shorter sentences as they continue to get busted for their car thefts, home invasions, b-and-e's etc."

Stansfield wouldn't let Day's criticisms go without a stinging response, calling Day's comments "melodramatic," "simplistic" and "misleading."

"If Mr. Day wants to come out and spend some time with me and learn how the systems works, I'd be delighted to do that," Stansfield said yesterday. "But I find his comments unhelpful and misleading."

Stansfield said Day is referring to the particular problem of repeat criminal offenders -- many of whom are homeless people with mental illnesses -- who live in the notorious Downtown Eastside.

He said Day is wrong to "melodramatically suggest" that a significant number of offenders have been charged more than 70 or 80 times.

And he said Day is wrong in saying that the more times people get convicted, the shorter their sentences become. In fact, said Stansfield, the opposite is true.

What most upset Stansfield is Day's suggestion that the solution to Vancouver's drug-and-crime problem is to lock addicts behind bars for lengthy jail terms.

He said B.C.'s provincial courts handle about 100,000 cases each year. About 17,000 of those are in downtown Vancouver.

"Downtown Vancouver has the greatest difficulty with chronic offenders," Stansfield said. "The Downtown Eastside has a significant population of deep-set problems, with mentally ill people who are often drug addicts, who are living on the street.

"To think that these social problems can be solved by sending people to jail for longer terms is a really simplistic and unfair approach."

If judges did throw every repeat offender into a federal prison, Stansfield said, there would not be enough prisons to house them all.

Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Day, said the government "does not support a revolving-door justice system."

"We made clear commitments in our election platform to address the problem of serious repeat offenders," Leclerc said.

"That is why we have proposed mandatory and escalating jail time for repeat offenders."

David Toner, a spokesman for Vancouver-based Families Against Crime and Trauma, believes more jails are what Canadians want.

"If that's the only thing holding judges back, let's build them," said Toner. "There's a surplus in the budget -- I'm sure it would make people happy to build more prisons."

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=f834b4a7-aa1c-463d-b57d-3bc072e4cd96