Canada unveils crack down on serious crime

OTTAWA - Canada has unveiled plans to crack down on serious crimes by imposing longer sentences, saying this would act as a deterrent.

It did not, however, expect the number of prisoners to rise greatly.

The new Conservative government, which won the January 23 election in part because of a promise to boost law and order, introduced draft legislation that would impose mandatory sentences for crimes involving firearms.

It also wants to scrap the practice of using conditional sentences -- including house arrest -- for serious offences.

"Our laws seem more focused on the rights of criminals than the rights of law-abiding citizens.... We are changing the focus of the justice system so that serious crime will mean serious crime," Justice Minister Vic Toews said.

The latest national data show that while overall crime in Canada in 2004 fell by 1 per cent from 2003, the murder rate jumped by 12 per cent from a 36-year low the year before.

Canada's homicide rate remains low by international standards -- 1.9 per 100,000 population in 2004, versus 5.5 per 100,000 in the United States -- but a rash of crimes involving firearms has sparked an increasing public outcry.

In March 2005 a lone gunman shot and killed four policemen on a farm in Alberta. Last year some 50 people -- most of them young black men -- were shot dead in Toronto.

The Conservatives and the opposition Liberals -- who had been in power for 12 years before losing the January 23 election -- both campaigned on the need to cut gun crimes.

Under the draft legislation, the minimum penalty for committing an armed crime would be five years in prison for a first offence. This would jump to 10 years if the accused had more than one prior conviction for armed crime.

Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said the laws would result in an increase of 300 to 400 prisoners in a federal system that currently has around 12,000 people in jail.

The cost of building extra cells would require between C$220 million ($314 million) and C$240 million ($343 million) over the next five years, he added.

But he dismissed the idea that the tough new laws would result in a huge increase in the prison population.

"We also believe there will be a deterring effect from getting serious about serious crimes and that that eventually will take hold and possibly have some reductions," he said.

The Liberals were cool about the proposed laws and said they would study them closely.

"In the election (campaign) we wanted a balanced approach which included more effective repressive measures but also measures which would address root causes of crime," Liberal leader Bill Graham told reporters.

"We see nothing of that here. We see only the repressive side," he said.

- REUTERS