"Life Means Life"

Continuing his journey down pathways that are almost too dark to be considered "conservative", Mr Harper this week made a big deal of his plan to incarcerate certain types of murders for 35 years before they can ask for some sort of parole. He made the announcement in public (as opposed to in Parliament where he could be asked questions). During the announcement there were a number of family members who have been impacted by a loved one being murdered. Nice trick - so sensitive.  There are so many things wrong with this obvious and quite frankly obscene pandering to the ultra conservative that it almost defies discussion.  However, I think there are three separate issues that concern me the most.

One: as demonstrated with Mr. Harper's concern over terrorism, it is important that one needs to be sure that there is a problem, and if so that his solution is the correct way to fix it. It boggles the mind that the Prime Minister appears to be incapable of looking up some basic facts on the Internet or failing that having someone to do it for him. He seems to have lots of staff around. Surely one of them could do that. Unless of course he neither asks or accepts advice?

Here are some facts. All were found by going to the Statistics Canada website (Stats Canada).  It may have taken me fifteen seconds to find the one page that had all of this information. The data is for 2013 as Statistics Canada has not yet released the figures for 2014. The homicide rate in Canada is the lowest it has been in 44 years. 87% of the homicides were committed by people who were known to the victim.   Furthermore 20% of the murders were committed by an intimate partner. Perhaps surprisingly, 20% of the individuals accused of a homicide are suspected of either having a developmental disability or living with a mental illness.  Not surprisingly 75% of the accused were under the influence of either alcohol or illegal drugs at the time of the murder.

The Huffington Post on March 4/15 discussed the most recent data available from  Correctional Service of Canada: "658 convicted murderers were released on full parole between January 1975 and the end of March 1990. Of those, five were convicted of committing a second murder — three of first-degree and two of second". While I would agree that any murder is terrible thing for a family to deal with, the fact that only .0075% of all paroles committed a homicide suggest that the present system seems to be working. My bet is that those who demonstrate no remorse or who have demonstrated a dangerous pathology don't get out. Clifford Olson, Robert Picton, Paul Bernardo or Russell Williams are not getting out time soon (except for Olson who died in prison)

So Mr. Harper - what is the problem you are fixing? There are fewer murders now than at any time since you started primary school, people who kill usually know the victim (sometimes intimately), they are frequently drunk or stoned and when they are released after serving their time over 99% of them do not commit another murder. It seems to me that there is not much of a problem.

Could there be any other reason why you decided to raise this issue now? You have had four years to slip this revision into one of your omnibus bills. If I were a cynic I would wonder if you are trying to deflect attention from the economy or the environment........ more tomorrow.