Prime MinisterHarper promises crime crackdown

WINNIPEG - Canada’s streets are under threat and it’s time to do battle with criminals, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday, promising to crack down on gangs, guns and drugs.

Harper outlined his government’s get-tough scheme in Winnipeg, focusing on three key initiatives - mandatory minimum prison sentences, an end to conditional sentences and house arrests, and an increase of the age of sexual consent to 16 from 14.

“Times … have been changing,” Harper said at a luncheon sponsored by the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, “and the safe streets and safe neighbourhoods that Canadians have come to expect as part of the Canadian way of life are threatened by rising levels of gun, gang and drug crime.”

Harper cited this month’s mass-murder of eight people associated with the Bandidos motorcycle gang near London, Ont., as a clear indication organized crime is a growing problem throughout Canada.

He said the federal and provincial governments, along with local authorities, would need to work together to fight the “plague.”

Mandatory minimum sentences would be enforced against violent and repeat offenders who commit drug- and gun-related crimes, he said.The end to conditional sentences and house arrests will keep criminals in jail for the duration of their sentences, he said.“The current practice of allowing some criminals who have been convicted of serious violent, sexual, weapons or drug offences to serve out their sentence at home is unconscionable.”

Harper also said the increased age of consent will bring Canada more in line with the rest of the world. The age of consent is now 16 in the U.K, Australia and in most American states.

As well, the prime minister issued a stern warning to drug and gun traffickers, saying his new Tory government would take stronger measures against crime than the Liberal gun registry, which he called a “useless, billion-dollar file of the property of duck hunters.”“We will empower the police and prosecutors with the tools they need to discover your enterprises, shut them down and put you behind bars,” he said before 1,200 Winnipeg business people.

Each of the three measures is to be introduced in a separate bill, Harper said, as a test of opposition parties’ commitments to cracking down on violent crime.Speaking with reporters, Harper did not provide details on the cost of the new policies, but said it would not have a significant impact on the government’s budget.

Harper also spoke of the establishment of a “national drug strategy,”

Michael McCafferty comments:

I agree with Prime Minister Harper. Now is the time for 'law and order' in Canada.