Toronto Sun opinion: Harper not so tough on crime

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Seems just about every time the Harper gang needs to get out of trouble, it offers up some new piece of lawmaking that promises to put the bad guys behind bars.

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As the PM put it: “Our government is serious about getting tough on crime ... The Liberals have abused their Senate majority by obstructing and eviscerating law-and-order measures that are urgently needed and strongly supported by Canadians.”

No doubt about it — when it comes to thwarting new laws to keep us free from muggers, rapists and pot-smoking hippies, the prime minister certainly is something of an expert on the subject.

The Conservative government introduced a total of 17 law-and-order bills in parliament last year.

Three of those actually were passed into law, one dealing with organized crime, another dealing with sentencing calculations for time served behind bars before conviction.

The third, aimed at identity theft, actually came from that obstructing, eviscerating, Liberal-dominated Senate.

The remaining 14 “law-and-order measures that are urgently needed,” as the PM put it, were automatically killed en masse when parliament recently was ordered shut down by the, um, PM.

Of those, 11 were sitting somewhere on the Commons agenda, and only three bills were anywhere near the Senate at the time of their demise.

One of those three, one repealing the so-called “faint hope” clause for lifers, arrived in the Senate less than two weeks before the place went dark.

The second bill that died in the Senate when Harper prorogued parliament dealt with auto theft, and went to committee in the upper chamber the week before the Christmas recess.

The third piece of legislation lost in Harper’s official lights-out provided mandatory minimum prison terms for anyone caught with more than five marijuana plants.

That bill was so urgent that it first was introduced by the Conservative government in 2007, but was killed by Harper’s calling of the 2008 election. It was resurrected, debated and died again when Harper recently shut down parliament.

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Whups, forgot the link.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/greg_weston/2010/02/01/12700781.html

and then pulls all his own legislation...every time.

Pandering to the base again, pretty much his entire repertoire.

OTTAWA - Stephen Harper is appealing to Canadians' fear of crime to justify the appointment of five new Conservative senators.

"Our government is serious about getting tough on crime. Since we were first elected, we have made it one of our highest priorities," the prime minister said in a statement Friday announcing his latest Senate picks.

"The Liberals have abused their Senate majority by obstructing and eviscerating law and order measures that are urgently needed and strongly supported by Canadians."

With Friday's new additions, the Conservatives finally outnumber the Liberals in the upper chamber, although they are still just short of an absolute majority. That new dominance, the Harper government asserted, will finally enable the Tories to speed their tough-on-crime agenda through the Senate and make Canada a safer place.

Then again, maybe not.

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http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/83078062.html

Canadians don't have a 'fear of crime', they just have Harper TELLING them they do.

If Haiti didn't raise Harp's numbers...and they're 32-32 tonight...then this crime hype ain't gonna.