2009-10 (October)
October 27, 2009
Safer Communities
Ensuring the safety and security of Canadians is a priority for Prime Minster Stephen Harper and our federal Government. We are standing up for victims of crime, and putting the rights of law-abiding citizens ahead of the rights of criminals.
It hasn’t been easy. Liberals, especially those in the Senate, have gone to great lengths to stall and amend our legislation. Finally, the Bill (C-25) ending the practice of granting 2-for-1 credit for time served received Royal Assent on October 23rd. Now the rule will be 1-to-1, to a maximum of 1.5-to-1 in exceptional cases, and in such cases, the courts will have to justify the exception.
We are also moving forward with legislation to protect families from fraud and white collar crime. The white collar criminal that defrauds families is no different than a mugger or a thief. The impact of fraud can be devastating. Our Conservative government believes in taking real action to protect law-abiding Canadians and we introduced a Bill (C-52) proposing a minimum two year sentence for fraud over $1 million. Let’s hope the opposition parties don’t go soft on this one and that it can be passed into law quickly.
Under our current parole laws, once those fraudsters and other non-violent offenders are convicted, they can receive day parole after serving only one-sixth of their sentence and full parole after serving only one-third of the court ordered sentence if they are unlikely to commit a violent offence. Early parole should be a privilege not a right so our Government took another step closer to a merit based parole system by bringing in legislation (C-53) that will put an end to automatic early release.
This goes hand in hand with our proposed legislation (BillC-36) that aims at ending the practice of allowing murderers to apply for early parole known as the “faint hope” clause. Criminals who commit first - or second -degree murder would no longer be able to apply for early parole. By ending “faint hope” reviews, families and victims will be spared the pain of attending repeated parole eligibility hearings and having to relive the nightmare over and over again.
In 2006, Our Government promised to end the wasteful gun registry and focus important crime-fighting resources on real criminals - not farmers and hunters. Although the opposition parties have continually blocked our efforts, we will not give up. My Colleague Candice Hoeppner, MP for Portage – Lisgar sponsored a Private Member’s Bill (C-391) to scrap the long-gun registry that is scheduled to be voted on at second-reading on November 4, 2009.
Traditionally, MPs are free to vote their conscience on Private Member’s Bills. We expect this vote to be very close as both Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton have been unbending in their support for the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry. Every vote will matter so we hope that individual Liberal and New Democrat MPs will stand up to their political bosses in Ottawa and vote to protect the local way of life for their constituents.
Many of these MPs think they can have it two ways: they will say they want to scrap the long-gun registry when at home in their ridings, but their actions support keeping it when they're in Ottawa. It’s time to put an end to this billion-dollar Liberal boondoggle once and for all.
We are continuing to follow through on our tackling crime agenda. We are standing up for victims of crime, and putting the rights of law-abiding citizens ahead of the rights of criminals. The Opposition needs to stop stalling these important pieces of criminal justice legislation that our Government has introduced so that they can pass and become law.
Please contact my Constituency office for assistance or for information on these or any federally related matters, postage free at: #6, 4612 - 50th Street, Ponoka, T4J 1S7, tel: (403) 783-5530; toll free: 1-800-665-0865 or visit my web site: www.blainecalkinsmp.ca.
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