Tories To End Conditional Sentences For Property And Serious Crimes
Posted June 13, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
People who commit serious crimes like arson or kidnapping shouldn’t be serving sentences from the comfort of their own homes, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Saturday.
To toughen up the law, he’s planning to introduce legislation Monday that ends conditional sentences for perpetrators of property and serious crimes.
The move is another in a series of Conservative initiatives meant to tackle crime that’s being put forward just as the session comes to a close, and so Nicholson couldn’t say exactly when he hopes to see such a law passed.
But he made clear he believes too many offenders are being sentenced to house arrest, which doesn’t reflect the severity of the crimes they commit.
“I always say to people there is a cost when people who should be detained aren’t detained, that is a cost to society,” Nicholson said at an announcement in Toronto.
“So the cost of incarceration is a cost that society and the system will bear.”
Nicholson argued that earlier legislation moved by the Tories to end conditional sentences was “gutted” by the opposition. Crimes like theft over $5000 – which includes most auto thefts – robbery, arson, break-and-enters, home invasion, impaired driving causing bodily harm and kidnapping, were scratched.
He says the new legislation will make a wider-ranging list of offences ineligible for conditional sentences, which represent imprisonment of less than two years and often isn’t actually served behind bars.
He couldn’t provide more specific details, but said “it’ll go much farther than where we’re at right now.”
Less serious offences, which pose low risk to the community, should be the only ones given a conditional sentence, he said.
Earlier this month Nicholson also moved to repeal the “faint hope” clause, which means that anyone convicted of first-or second-degree murder would no longer be able to apply for early parole.
The Minister says his numerous law-and-order announcements aim to ensure court sentences are meaningful and reflect the severity of the crime committed.
