Justice, Min. Cotler, Guns and SCOC: There are none so blind as those who will not see

EDITORIAL: Lose the Liberal blindfold -- to Justice Minister Irwin Cotler via Newsbeat1

Even as Mayor David Miller -- hardly a hang-'em-high type himself -- stressed to Cotler the need for our revolving-door justice system to stop being so lenient on gun-toting gangsters, the Liberal minister clung to his mantra that tougher sentences aren't the answer.

He insisted the four-year minimum sentence for gun crimes already on the books is more than tough enough. But he failed to acknowledge the real problem -- that judges rarely, if ever, impose such sentences. So what good are they?

[. . . . ] The 20-something gangsters now shooting each other and innocent bystanders grew up laughing at flaccid laws that coddled them as youths, and now shrug as our courts fail to deliver on so-called tough sentences. [. . . . ]

MP Vic Toews, Tory critic hits soft sentencing By AMY CARMICHAEL,

VANCOUVER (CP) - Cutting a woman off e-mail and ordering her to serve two years of house arrest for fatally stabbing her cheating lover in the groin suggests there is a need for mandatory minimum jail sentences for violent crimes, says the Conservative justice critic.

And the response from Justice Minister Irwin Cotler:

Justice Minister Cotler: Justice minister backs community programs -- diversionary programs, money--no funding promises By TARA BRAUTIGAM

TORONTO (CP) - Community-service programs need sustainable funding to stem gun violence in Toronto, the federal justice minister said Tuesday after meeting with the city's mayor to discuss ways to tackle the surge in summer murders in Canada's largest city.

Search: "MP Jim Flaherty, who last week was selected to sit on a federal Conservative panel examining crime rates across the country" , "murders in Toronto this year" , "involved guns" , "fatal shootings in all of 2004."

Can't you just see the little brothers who note the drug $$$ flashed around by their older siblings and the respect awarded those with firepower responding positively to diversionary programs? Can you visualize the thugs involved in drugs and killing each other for turf and control (I assume) who make much more illegally than they would in normal jobs, given their training and education, coming to a friendly neighbourhood center for some counselling and job training?

End the "understanding", the excuses; try PUNISHMENT, INCARCERATION, HARD WORK on a road somewhere or some other worthy endeavour for thugs who haven't been civilized by the "caring approach" yet.




Appearance is everything in appointing new Supreme Court Justice

Public gets say on top court judge -- Will the public fall for the appearance of change while the PM still maintains the power to appoint while Cotler gets to present the list to PM? BRUCE CHEADLE, Aug. 31, 05

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler seeks public input into who should fill the next vacancy on Canada's Supreme Court.

Some interesting background here on how the whole charade has been carried out . . . and nothing will change. Remember the last two?




CNEWS: Comentary from some Canadians

Liberal Brian Boudreau, former NS MLA indicted for "91 counts of fraud and forgery" -- Comments indicative of our current cynicism about government Zoomie54

But from tangle2foot:

That should be good for an order of Canada and a senate seat. Maybe martin and Co will also hand out an Ambassadorship.

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