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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 1, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Opponents don't support Tories' tough on crime stance By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF With guns in schools making recent headlines across the GTA, Oakville's King's Christian Collegiate served as the setting for a discussion on what the government has done and hopes to do about violent crime. Justice Minister Robert Nicholson, along with Oakville Conservative candidate Terence Young, visited the school on Thursday, where Nicholson fielded questions from an audience of around 40 students. When asked by one student about what the government is doing to tackle gun violence, Nicholson noted that under the Conservative government criminals who commit crimes with guns are going to jail longer. "What we said was that if you want to commit a serious gun crime you would get a minimum of five years in prison. If you didn't get the message the first time you would get seven years the next time around," he said. "If you committed a third offence you get a minimum of 10 years." Nicholson also noted the Conservatives have made it more difficult for a person with a history of committing crimes with guns to get out on bail. "Why would we do this? Police tell me that if a person has a history of gun crime, gets charged with another gun crime and gets let out back on the street, that has a very intimidating effect on witnesses, victims and everyone in the neighbourhood," said Nicholson. "It sends the wrong message." Another part of the `tough on crime' message the Conservatives are trying to get across would see the sentence of house arrest made unavailable for a number of serious offences. "If a person sets fire to your house they would be eligible to go back to their house when they were sentenced," said Nicholson. "We disagreed with that." The Conservatives also want to remove the possibility of house arrest for those convicted of weapons offences, impaired driving causing bodily harm or death, drug trafficking, kidnapping and human trafficking. While he did not go into detail, Nicholson also told the students that a re-elected Conservative government would make changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act. These include giving judges the ability to release the names of young offenders for publication and handing out tougher sentences to young people, 14 and over, found guilty of crimes such as murder, aggravated assault and manslaughter. Nicholson said the government would also spend $10 million on a Youth Gang Prevention Fund. The students applauded Nicholson after question period and while some may have liked his policies the other Oakville candidates were certainly not among them. Oakville Liberal MP Bonnie Brown doubts the Conservative measures will do anything to reduce crime levels and points out that sending so many additional people to prison has a huge price tag. "The result would mean an additional 7,161 individuals being incarcerated. Each male inmate RON KUZYK / OAKVILLE BEAVER OAKVILLE'S ORIGINAL BOOTCAMP 2 LOCATIONS: River Oaks Community Church 2435 Munn's Avenue East 6:00am, 7:15am St Cuthberts Anglican Church 1541 Oakhill Dr. (off Maple Grove) 9:30am & 6:00pm 5 Days A Week Classes start October 6th Oakville's Original Boot Camp GUEST LECTURER: Justice Minister Rob Nicholson speaks to a law class at King's Christian Collegiate about changing the Youth Criminal Act. costs about $80,000 per year, female inmates cost about $120,000, so it's just unbelievable how much that would cost," said Brown. "The second thing is that the jails right now are overcrowded, rooms that should have two inmates sometimes have three, so this plan would mean the building of 22 new jails across the country." Brown said the Conservative promise to get tough on crime by putting more people in jail would cost a grand total of $2.2 billion. Brown also noted that sending 14-yearolds to prison is essentially sending them to `criminal school' from which they will eventually immerge as hardened criminals. Brown challenged the Conservative statement that the Liberals are soft on crime noting that in the last Parliament the Liberals passed 29 of the 31 crime bills presented by the Conservatives. She also fails to understand why the Conservatives are making crime an election issue when statistics show crime to be on the decline in Canada. Oakville NDP candidate Michelle Bilek feels crime needs to be cut by dealing with its root causes such as poverty and despair. Bilek said NDP leader Jack Layton's plan to create stronger communities will stop criminal activity before it starts. "He proposed a National Youth Safety Strategy to prevent youth crime that would focus on developing and training youth leaders and providing child care for children," she said. "The New Democrats have also released a plan to curb handgun violence and that includes getting more police on the streets, a stronger witness protection program, funding for proven prevention programs focusing on youth in sports, youth giving back to the community and youth in a social system atmosphere." Bilek noted that funding would also be allocated towards drug treatment, counselling and training programs to ensure that former prison inmates are successfully integrated back into society. Oakville Green Party candidate Blake Poland also believes more attention needs to be paid to preventing crime than punishing it. "We don't believe in letting criminals off lightly, but we think there needs to be a balance between deterrents and punishment on the one hand and rehabilitation and prevention on the other," he said. Some of the Green Party ideas include the increasing of funding for restorative justice programs for first time non-violent offenders, in which wrongdoers make reparation to victims and their community. Poland said the Green Party would also dedicate resources to computer crimes specialists who combat the online sexual exploitation of children through child pornography and Internet luring. Education and meaningful work for ex-cons so they can pay at least part of the costs of their crime The Greens would also increase the penalties for those convicted of domestic violence. INDOOR & OUTDOOR FITNESS TOTAL BODY CONDITIONING 1 hour a day / 3 or 5 days a week / 4 weeks Enlist today! Register online at www.survivorbootcamp.com or call 1 877 BOOTCMP (1.877.266.8267) Franchises Available! 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