Propaganda From Vic Toews

There are two letters of particular note in this morning's edition of The Toronto Star, one a propaganda piece from our much beleaguered Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, the other from Ron Charach, who seems to possess a certain perspicacity in his assessment of the Conservative government.

I am reproducing both below, with a few editorial additions on my part to 'clarify' Mr. Toews' words:

Re: Priority is on marketing in Tory anti-crime agenda, Opinion Aug. 27

Our government’s crime legislation does not create new criminals. Rather, it keeps the most dangerous, violent and repeat offenders behind bars for longer periods of time.

FACT: The Omnibus Crime bill imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of nine months for anyone found growing six or more marijuana plants in a rented premises, and could impose the same sentence for someone caught simply sharing a joint, which might be considered trafficking, even if no money was paid.

Our Conservative government was given a strong mandate by Canadians to make our streets and communities safer. We make no apologies for putting the rights of law-abiding Canadians ahead of the rights of criminals.

FACT: Only 39.6 of those who cast votes did so for the Conservative Party

We will continue to implement laws, policies, and procedures that protect Canadian families while standing up for our most vulnerable citizens. That isn’t marketing. It’s the first duty of every government.

FACT: The Conservative government is not standing up for our most vulnerable citizens, who are threatened with increasing poverty, a major contributor to crime, through the loss of even more jobs thanks to the Canada-Columbia free trade pact. And, of course, informed opinion says that CETA and the Asia-Pacific free trade pact, currently being conducted in secret, will likely result in more of the same.

Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety,(Hypocrisy) Ottawa

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When it comes to what governments choose to call laws, there is no Truth in Advertising commission. If there were, C-69 would be the Soft on Ruger Miniis bill, C-38 would be the Gut the Environmental Laws bill and C-10 would be the Up the Incarceration Rate/ Private Prisons bill.

The abortive C-80, which should have cost Vic Toews his job, should have been the Stoop to Snoop bill.

These Father-knows-best Conservatives will protect us from Internet predators, but for the real thing, the Anders Breiviks and Marc Lepines of the world, we are essentially on our own.

I for one am not surprised that the Republicans are looking up at Canada these days and like the Republican-style, majority government we have going here, with plenty of omnibus bills to allow the Conservatives godspeed in reshaping Canada in their own image.

Ron Charach, Toronto

The Conservative Mantra: Statistics? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Statistics

The title of this post, meant to evoke the misquote of the Mexican bandits as they prepare to eliminate Fred Dobbs, the miscreant protagonist of The Treasure of the Seirra Madre played by Humphrey Bogart, seemed appropriate in light of the Harper government's contempt for the authoritative substance of statistics.

As reported in today's Star,

A new report shows that Canadian police services are using the firearms registry more than ever, relying on it more than 14,000 times a day rather than viewing it as an obsolete and unreliable database as the Conservative government claims.

Don't, of course, expect this striking data to fork any lightning with the right-wing set who, moved by reactionary ideology rather than logic, is still intent on destroying all of the information gleaned over the many years of the registry's existence.

As with the government's prohibition of government scientists speaking out without Harper's permission, as with the elimination of the mandatory long-form census, and as with the imposition of mandatory minimum jail terms and the building of expensive super-prisons at a time of declining crime, all indicators of a regime drunk on power and intent on absolute control, one can only bear witness to this dark period in Canadian history and hope that the slumber of the electorate ends soon.