Prime Minster Stephen Harper rode in to our rescue this week to announce his government is once again getting tough on crime.
This time, it’s the baddest of the bad that our government is determined to save us from. They’ll be locked up and the key tossed into a deep, dark well, with no possibility of parole.
Never mind that Canada is experiencing its lowest rate of violent crime in 40 years. Or that first-degree murderers represent a teeny tiny fraction of even those dwindling statistics.
Forget that we already have dangerous offender legislation that essentially covers the same ground and offers the public the same protection.
That’s not the point.
The point is to remind Canadians that the Boogeyman is still out there. The point is a bump in the polls from Canadians who respond favourably to a crack down on what we fear, especially in an election year.
It won’t actually make us safer. And, like every piece of legislation that lengthens prison sentences, this will come with massive costs.
A prison cell is an extremely expensive place for a Canadian to be. That’s money that could be spent mitigating the problems we know actually lead to crime: addiction, poverty and untreated mental illness.
Sadly, this is part of another well-established Tory pattern. The last time Canada’s murder rate was this low, Lester B. Pearson was Prime Minister.
It seems the safer Canadians get, the more our federal government wants to scare the wits out of them. That’s by design. Don’t fall for it.
