For Submission
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Justice in Ontario

Last Friday I was privileged to participate in a moving ceremony to honour police officers in our community and open a new, state-of-the-art OPP facility in Minden.

It was a special event that, once again, brought to our attention the tremendous work of our law enforcement officers. Day after day these men and women put themselves in harm’s way, protecting people whom they’ve never met.

This also brought to mind the challenges of our justice system in Ontario, and how frustrated these officers must feel at times. Police officers are doing their job apprehending violent offenders, only to see these same offenders often released back into our communities pending trial.

No doubt this is a frightening thought. Statistically, in Toronto last year 21 of 32 murder suspects had previous court orders. That’s nearly 66%.

This cannot go unnoticed, and it’s time the McGuinty Liberals and their Attorney General do the responsible thing and immediately take action on this.

The very notion of offenders routinely violating bail conditions and repeatedly being charged with violent offences, yet still qualifying for bail is simply unacceptable.

Clearly the ‘Catch and Release’ system has to end. The McGuinty Liberals are not acting on this and it is claiming innocent victims as dangerous offenders are being released.

The Progressive Conservative Caucus has proposed a much more open and transparent system, calling for annual statistics from the Attorney General to the public that would state the number of violations that occur while offenders are on bail.

This proposal included an Amendment to Bill 14, the Access to Justice Act, which was introduced by the Attorney General himself. Surprisingly, the McGuinty Liberals voted this amendment down.

Ontario must do everything in its power to keep potentially dangerous subjects in jail and punish those who violate their bail conditions. Innocent victims of crime can be better protected from harmful offenders with an open and transparent justice system with statistics.

How many innocent victims could be protected if the government pushed harder to keep dangerous suspects off Ontario’s streets? Frankly, if it’s even one innocent victim that is protected – that should be more than enough.

That means the McGuinty Liberals and the Attorney General must take a tough approach on bail to ensure that people charged with violent offences are not out on bail shortly afterwards to potentially do more harm to innocent, hardworking families.

Instead of acting and being responsible for breaking promise after promise, the Attorney General’s solution is to play the blame game and to try to divert attention from the issue before us.

At a time when real, courageous action is needed, the McGuinty Liberals are grandstanding, playing partisan politics, and once again, saying anything to get elected.

Ontario’s law enforcement officers know better; Progressive Conservatives know better; Ontarians know better.

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