Our Turkey of the Week award goes to Stockwell Day, for turning into Mumbly Joe when the situation called for Dirty Harry.
At a recent press conference, the Treasury Board president tried, rather unsuccessfully, to defend the federal government’s decision to spend billions on new prisons at a time when crime rates have been falling.
Day claimed that official crime stats don’t give the full picture and cited an “alarming” rise in unreported crime.
Day makes an excellent point: many crimes, especially property crimes under $500 or so and sexual assault cases (where the victim might be too traumatized/humiliated/scared to talk to police) go unreported. Even the reliably liberal Toronto Star newspaper has acknowledged as much and has been soliciting stories from crime victims who never made a report to authorities.
When challenged by reporters, however, Day "babbled nonesense like a man with a concussion” in the brilliant phrase of one commentator. As evidence to back his point, Day lamely referred to a Statistics Canada survey (conducted in 2004) that indicated unreported crime was on the rise. Instead of facts and figures, he offered vague bromides about law and order.
Day’s stumbling performance exemplifies the Conservatives’ position on crime, which tends to be based on hysteria more than hard evidence.
If the Tories were serious about fighting crime, they might consider introducing a Canadian equivalent of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, which recently passed the U.S House of Representatives. A companion bill to a measure sponsored by Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia), the Act authorizes a committee to examine the U.S. justice system in minute detail. Everything, from drug laws, mandatory minimums and draconian sentences for minor offences will be up for review.
Unlike Stockwell Day, Senator Webb seems to understand it’s possible to be both tough and smart on crime.
