Its a tradition of politicians to deflect from their own wrong doing by lashing out against crime, as if this problem was not better taken care off by reason than by impulse.
Even the US justice system, Harper's role model, has started to retreat from an excessive penal code against young offenders because it damaged trust into police and courts and hurt public safety. In his latest election promise Harper wants to make Canada the only G7 country without an effective youth court. There are almost no examples for such a policy in Western countries. One that I could find was the Third Reich which abandoned the youth court during WW2 in 1944.
The bedrock of justice history and 800 years of justice reform is that crime deterrence depends on equality in court and balanced dignity of the court. The criminological evidence may be counter intuitive to some, but more severe sentences, mandatory minimum sentences as well as increased maximum sentences do not improve crime deterrence or stop the revolving door justice. Respect for the law is tied to the independence of justice as third pillar of the representative system, keeping everybody, including government and parliament, honest. Its a watchdog role without which democracy cannot stand. A control function that Harper wants to get rid of by diminishing the courts with a radical new level of legislating the courts sentences. He promotes the 'tough on crime strategy' in connection with having already corrupted the rules to appoint judges in the novel way of political appointments. Every person in every walk and place of life knows, every woman, man and child knows that the adherence to rules depends on them being equal for everybody. Super tough crime laws are seductive propaganda and have shown to propel the well to do to negotiate their way out, strike deals, come up with expensive lawyers. Crime deterrence is compromised as a result of inequality in court; its that simple. And its already a problem, since Jean Chretien's times Canadas young offender legislation is one of the toughest in the world. Lack of legal aid and lack of access of low income people to justice in Canada had caught the attention of the UN. It also bothers police as far as they are free to voice their opinion like retired RCMP officers for example. Canadian and American BAR associations as well as Police organizations in the states oppose the ideological crime war.
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