Committee guts Tory crime-fighting bill
Oct 25, 2006
Jim Brown
Canadian Press

OTTAWA—Justice Minister Vic Toews is lambasting the three federal opposition parties for banding together to gut a Conservative bill aimed at severely curbing the ability of judges to sentence convicted criminals to house arrest rather than jail time.

"What it means is that very serious crimes are still open to house arrest — including crimes like break and enter into people's dwelling houses, arson, robberies," Toews said yesterday.

Bill C-9, introduced in May, was trumpeted by the Tories as a key part of their law-and-order legislative agenda.

Critics maintained it would do little to deter crime, but would fill the country's jails to overflowing and impose a hefty bill on taxpayers to build new prisons.

Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs on the Commons justice committee joined forces late Monday to push through a package of amendments that would limit any future ban on the use of house arrest — or conditional sentencing, as it is formally known — to serious crimes of violence.

"I think we've addressed the concerns of the country," said NDP justice critic Joe Comartin. "(And we've) done it appropriately, as opposed to the radical, extreme over-reaction that the Conservatives had."

Comartin said the minority Tory government can accept the changes, or ignore them and try to force a vote in the full Commons on the original bill. Such a move, he predicted, would lead to a defeat of the legislation.

The government could also simply refrain from calling the bill for a final vote in the full House — a move tantamount to abandoning the legislation. Toews said he hopes other opposition MPs in the Commons will be more inclined to side with the Conservatives.