Look through the press releases on the Public Safety website and it won’t be long before you find some reference to crime victims and how the Harper government is on their side. Whether it was Bill C-10, the huge omnibus crime bill that only mentioned victims a handful of times or announcements about building new prison cells or not building new prisons, it’s clear that the Harper government wants us to believe they are the only government that has done anything for victims.
The most recent example is Bill C-37, the Increasing Offenders’ Accountability for Victims Act. The bill, if passed, will remove a judge’s discretion to waive the Victim Fine Surcharge and it doubles the amount. The money raised from surcharges goes directly to provinces who are supposed to use it to fund services for victims.
It is a positive step although critics have pointed out the irony of doubling the amount of the surcharge when one of the excuses judges gave for waiving it (often without following the process set out by Parliament) was that offenders could not afford it. But more money for victim services is a good thing and if you work front line, long overdue. Keep in mind that most services are not paid by taxpayers but through these surcharges.
The government promised to make this change in the 2010 Throne Speech. They repeated it in the 2011 election platform. But somehow it took until this spring for the Minister of Justice to finally get around to writing the, ummm, mammoth 5 page Bill.
The legislative process moves slowly, you might say. Not always – remember how quickly the government acted when they found out about prisoner pension or pardons for sex offenders or accelerated parole review? Granted, each one of those situations followed some pretty high-profile cases that grabbed a lot of headlines, but many Canadians think more funding for victim services is at least equally important as taking away pensions from offenders.
The government has taken other positive steps. They created the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. They created a dedicated victim service within Corrections Canada. They expanded funding under the Victims Fund to include such things as bringing a support person to a parole hearing. They are helping create more Child Advocacy Centres across the country to support child victims.
In April, the government announced that it would, for the first time ever, provide some operational funding for non-governmental victims group. Some of these NGOs do projects funding for the government in order to keep their doors open and provide valuable services to victims of crime. But it’s October and those groups are still waiting. By the time the government gets around to handing out the money, some of these groups may not be around anymore.
In Bill C-10, they amended the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to give victims the right to receive more information about offenders and put their right to attend parole hearings in legislation. These amendments, which were not opposed by any political party, took Harper seven years to pass. They are so old that the previous Liberal government first introduced them in 2005. And Harper’s amendments lacked at least one major provision that the Liberal bill had – giving victims the chance to listen to an audiotape of a parole hearing if they had not been able to attend in person.
In reality, despite what the Tory government says about being the champions of victims, they can thank the Liberal government for laying a lot of the foundation they have built upon. Thirteen years of Liberal government saw the strengthening of Victim Impact Statement provisions in the Criminal Code, not once but twice, and expanded their use to parole hearings and mental health review board hearings. The Victim Fund the Tories expanded was created under the Liberals, making Canada one of the few jurisdictions in the world that funds victims to attend parole hearings. Under the Liberal watch, victims were included in the Criminal Code’s objectives for sentencing and laws aimed at protecting vulnerable victims were strengthened.
On the tough on crime side, the Liberals responded to calls from victims groups for a national DNA Databank (which has helped solve thousands of serious crimes), the sex offender registry and human trafficking legislation. They all had flaws, some of which the Tories have addressed, but these things began under the Liberals. And they responded to calls from police associations and women’s groups to create a firearms registry, voices Harper ignored when he weakened the registry.
It should be noted that the Liberals built on successes of the previous Progressive Conservative government, who put Victim Impact Statements into the Criminal Code and included, for the first time, victims in the corrections and parole system when they passed the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
Harper has done one thing much better than his predecessors and that is to politicize victims of crime to an extent never seen before. Their never-ending narrative about being the only party that stands up for victims is not true. In fact, this government has done more in the name of victims than it has actually done for victims.
Denying a pension to a criminal won’t give an abused woman a safe place to live. Preventing a sex offender from getting a pardon will not get one teenager off the street so he/she does not have to trade sex for survival. Tougher prison sentences will not do much for 90% of sexual assault victims who never report to police.
Every government should celebrate its policies regarding victims and ensure Canadians know about them, and the Harper government has some successes under its belt. But it is wrong to suggest your political opponents do not care about victims when some of the positive things you have done are building on things they did.
Original Article
Source: iPolitics
Author: Steve Sullivan
The most recent example is Bill C-37, the Increasing Offenders’ Accountability for Victims Act. The bill, if passed, will remove a judge’s discretion to waive the Victim Fine Surcharge and it doubles the amount. The money raised from surcharges goes directly to provinces who are supposed to use it to fund services for victims.
It is a positive step although critics have pointed out the irony of doubling the amount of the surcharge when one of the excuses judges gave for waiving it (often without following the process set out by Parliament) was that offenders could not afford it. But more money for victim services is a good thing and if you work front line, long overdue. Keep in mind that most services are not paid by taxpayers but through these surcharges.
The government promised to make this change in the 2010 Throne Speech. They repeated it in the 2011 election platform. But somehow it took until this spring for the Minister of Justice to finally get around to writing the, ummm, mammoth 5 page Bill.
The legislative process moves slowly, you might say. Not always – remember how quickly the government acted when they found out about prisoner pension or pardons for sex offenders or accelerated parole review? Granted, each one of those situations followed some pretty high-profile cases that grabbed a lot of headlines, but many Canadians think more funding for victim services is at least equally important as taking away pensions from offenders.
The government has taken other positive steps. They created the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. They created a dedicated victim service within Corrections Canada. They expanded funding under the Victims Fund to include such things as bringing a support person to a parole hearing. They are helping create more Child Advocacy Centres across the country to support child victims.
In April, the government announced that it would, for the first time ever, provide some operational funding for non-governmental victims group. Some of these NGOs do projects funding for the government in order to keep their doors open and provide valuable services to victims of crime. But it’s October and those groups are still waiting. By the time the government gets around to handing out the money, some of these groups may not be around anymore.
In Bill C-10, they amended the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to give victims the right to receive more information about offenders and put their right to attend parole hearings in legislation. These amendments, which were not opposed by any political party, took Harper seven years to pass. They are so old that the previous Liberal government first introduced them in 2005. And Harper’s amendments lacked at least one major provision that the Liberal bill had – giving victims the chance to listen to an audiotape of a parole hearing if they had not been able to attend in person.
In reality, despite what the Tory government says about being the champions of victims, they can thank the Liberal government for laying a lot of the foundation they have built upon. Thirteen years of Liberal government saw the strengthening of Victim Impact Statement provisions in the Criminal Code, not once but twice, and expanded their use to parole hearings and mental health review board hearings. The Victim Fund the Tories expanded was created under the Liberals, making Canada one of the few jurisdictions in the world that funds victims to attend parole hearings. Under the Liberal watch, victims were included in the Criminal Code’s objectives for sentencing and laws aimed at protecting vulnerable victims were strengthened.
On the tough on crime side, the Liberals responded to calls from victims groups for a national DNA Databank (which has helped solve thousands of serious crimes), the sex offender registry and human trafficking legislation. They all had flaws, some of which the Tories have addressed, but these things began under the Liberals. And they responded to calls from police associations and women’s groups to create a firearms registry, voices Harper ignored when he weakened the registry.
It should be noted that the Liberals built on successes of the previous Progressive Conservative government, who put Victim Impact Statements into the Criminal Code and included, for the first time, victims in the corrections and parole system when they passed the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
Harper has done one thing much better than his predecessors and that is to politicize victims of crime to an extent never seen before. Their never-ending narrative about being the only party that stands up for victims is not true. In fact, this government has done more in the name of victims than it has actually done for victims.
Denying a pension to a criminal won’t give an abused woman a safe place to live. Preventing a sex offender from getting a pardon will not get one teenager off the street so he/she does not have to trade sex for survival. Tougher prison sentences will not do much for 90% of sexual assault victims who never report to police.
Every government should celebrate its policies regarding victims and ensure Canadians know about them, and the Harper government has some successes under its belt. But it is wrong to suggest your political opponents do not care about victims when some of the positive things you have done are building on things they did.
Original Article
Source: iPolitics
Author: Steve Sullivan
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