Criminals should no longer be getting away with murder if a series of new provincial and federal legislation gets passed into law.
The province is targeting crime reduction in the area of gang-related activity, after escalating gangland violence in major urban areas in the province has left dozens of innocent victims. Bill 10, the Victims Restitution and Compensation Payment Amendment Act, Bill 11, the Witness Security Act, and Bill 12, the Body Armour Control Act, are making strides towards ensuring that Albertans are able to enjoy safe communities.
On the federal front, the Harper Conservatives are pursuing their own get-tough-on-crime agenda. Recent legislative amendments tabled in the House, if passed, will sharply curtail the heretofore lenient hand of the Young Offenders Act when dealing with repeat and violent offenders, up to and including adult sentences for heinous crimes and the publication of the names of offenders when it is deemed to be in the public interest.
A host of other federal justice-related reforms have already been passed or are making their way to the House during this sitting.
While it is important to maintain the aspects of our justice system that prevent the violation of an individual’s rights at the hands of the state, including the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the balance between the rights of the individual and the demands of the public and society at large can often seem to be an impossibly fine line to maintain.
Balance is essential, but criticisms that the individual is too often being protected at the expense of society, through crimes involving terror or indiscriminate violence against the innocent populace, are well-founded.
Habitual criminals should no longer be given an endless benefit of the doubt. It is reasonable that those with a proven track record of continuous anti-social behaviour should face escalating penalties in kind. Organized crime groups should be allowed to be taken to task by police and other law enforcement, and it is also reasonable to restrict those areas which these groups use to their advantage, such as body armour, to prevent criminal elements from continuing their activities.
Still, we must be careful that “getting tough on crime” doesn’t begin to infringe on our cherished freedoms through fear.