T
he Conservative government keeps trotting out the odd statistics on unreported crime as one of the main pillars of their omnibus crime bill. At best this is the most specious, of specious arguments.
It might look good to some people, but after you get beyond the surface, it means very little.
Conservative MP James Lunney claims 31 per cent of crimes are not being reported to police — and this backs up the Conservatives’ claim that dropping crime rates in this country are a misnomer. He points to sexual assaults as one large area of crime that goes unreported. Unfortunately, that’s true — but it has always been true. Crime rates can go up or down and yet some victims of this horrible crime will still not want to come forward for fear of being victimized again. A new crime bill isn’t going to change that.
Then, he goes further to claim that those same crime statistics — compiled by every small town and large city detachment of the RCMP and local police — are manipulated.
Talk about stabbing those people on the front line in the back.
What he’s saying is, police reports on declining crime in Canada mean nothing.
Think he and his party would be saying the same thing if those same reports showed the crime rate soaring?
So who’s manipulating the crime stats here?
The Conservatives’ crime bill — while it does contain some important points on making sure criminals serve appropriate sentences — falls miserably short of legislation that Canadians actually need are relies more on unsubstantiated fear to move it forward.
Canadians would be better served by a justice system that, first, tries to help ensure victims of crime are not further hurt, and that convicted criminals are given appropriate sentences that will do more to rehabilitate than condition them to a life of crime — all done within a system that has enough resources to function properly. — editorial by Steven Heywood
