Image of the postcard

Omnibus Bill C-10

Safe Streets and Communities Act

On September 20, 2011, the Government of Canada introduced its omnibus bill in the House of Commons, which includes 9 bills previously presented in the last session of Parliament. This bill is titled the Safe Streets and Communities Act. The Quebec Association of Social Rehabilitation Services, along with several other groups including the John Howard Society of Canada and the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, strongly opposes the adoption of this bill and encourages its members, their administrators, directors, employees, and volunteers to join in making our opposition known to our political leaders. Bill C-10 is currently at the committee stage before moving to the third and final reading in the House of Commons. It is therefore URGENT to act to make our views known. To facilitate this, we have prepared a postcard template that you can use if you wish, and you will notice that any mail sent to an MP's office in the House of Commons does not require a stamp.

If you prefer, we can mail you a number of these postcards, or you can reproduce the postcard yourself on ordinary photocopy paper.

Here is a summary and a non-exhaustive list of what Bill C-10 contains (you can view it online by clicking here):

1. Amendments to the Criminal Code to better protect children and adolescents from sexual predators:

  • new mandatory minimum sentences and elimination of conditional sentences in certain cases
  • increased mandatory minimum sentences for 9 offenses
  • increased maximum prison sentences for 4 offenses

2. Increased penalties for serious drug-related offenses:

  • mandatory minimum sentences in certain cases
  • increased maximum sentence for producing certain drugs (including marijuana) from 7 to 14 years

3. Amendment to the Youth Criminal Justice Act:

  • emphasize the protection of society as a fundamental principle of the law
  • strengthen penalties and reduce barriers to the detention of violent and repeat young offenders
  • require the prosecution to consider adult sentences in certain cases
  • require courts to consider lifting the publication ban on the names of young offenders in certain cases

4. Abolition of conditional sentences for certain crimes:

  • excludes all offenses with a maximum sentence of 14 years or life imprisonment from conditional sentence
  • excludes indictable offenses with a maximum sentence of 10 years where there are bodily harm, drug trafficking, or use of weapons
  • excludes the following indictable offenses with a maximum sentence of 10 years: prison escape or attempt to escape, motor vehicle theft, criminal harassment, sexual assault, kidnapping and confinement, human trafficking for material gain, abduction of a person under 14, theft over $5,000, break and enter with criminal intent, unlawful presence in a dwelling, and arson with fraudulent intent

5. Amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act:

  • ensure victim participation in Parole Board of Canada hearings and keep victims informed of the offender's behavior and treatment (e.g., disciplinary offenses, transfers, institution name, etc.)
  • "hold offenders more accountable by modernizing disciplinary sanctions and adding a legal requirement to develop a correctional plan for each offender outlining behavior expectations, program participation objectives, and obligations to make restitution to victims or provide child support"

6. Abolition of the concept of pardon and major changes to eligibility rules:

  • replace the term "pardon" with "record suspension"
  • extend eligibility period from 3 to 5 years for summary conviction offenses and from 5 to 10 years for indictable offenses
  • deny eligibility for record suspension to certain individuals: those convicted of sexual offenses against a child, more than 3 indictable offenses, or a military offense with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and who have been sentenced to 2 or more years of imprisonment

7. Amendments to the International Transfer of Offenders Act:

  • increased powers for the Minister of Public Safety to refuse inmate transfers to Canada from other countries based on specific criteria

8. Adoption of a Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act:

  • allow victims to seek compensation for losses or damages caused by acts of terrorism

9. Amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

PREDICTABLE IMPACTS OF THIS BILL:
  • Significant increase in the prison population in provincial and territorial prisons
  • Substantial increase in the federal prison population
  • Overcrowding and increased tension in institutions
  • Inhumane detention conditions in some cases
  • Massive prison construction programs
  • Explosion of justice and correctional services costs at both provincial and federal levels
  • Erosion of judicial discretion in sentencing
  • A criminal justice system increasingly focused on a single factor, the offense, without considering other factors such as circumstances, the person committing the offense, the nature of the offense, etc.
  • Contribution to a budget crisis where governments may face tough decisions like funding prisons and cutting essential services
  • Creation of more difficult conditions for social reintegration and rehabilitation by eliminating the concept of "rehabilitation" or "pardon" and making record suspension even more inaccessible. This results in increased stigma in employment, housing, insurance, travel opportunities, etc.

Conclusion:

The omnibus Bill C-10 on criminal justice is both unnecessary and creates injustices. It directly targets the most vulnerable Canadian citizens in our society. It will result in the extremely costly additional imprisonment of thousands of young people, individuals with mental illnesses, and people living in poverty (mostly from Indigenous communities) for longer periods. And for what purpose? The violent crime rate has been steadily declining for several years. According to Statistics Canada, it is at its lowest level since 1973. Building more prisons and hiring massive numbers of correctional officers will certainly lead thousands of young people to become hardened criminals by exposing them to the prison environment, long recognized as a "school of crime" in many respects. The bill proposes measures that are not based on evidence in criminal justice and correctional services and have proven ineffective and very costly in several countries that have adopted them, including the United States.

For all these reasons, we encourage you to join us in expressing our opposition to the adoption of Bill C-10 by sending postcards to your MP, the Prime Minister, and the Ministers of Justice and Public Safety.

To download our postcard template, click here and print them double-sided from your home! Remember, any mail sent to an MP's office in the House of Commons does not require a stamp.

September 29, 2011

Quebec Association of Social Rehabilitation Services (ASRSQ)

Thursday 29 December 2011