A federal bill to impose automatic jail terms for drug crimes, for the first time in Canada, is headed for passage in the House of Commons in a final vote that could happen as early as today.
The Liberals are apparently going to vote in favour of this, despite being warned by numerous experts that it will assuredly do nothing but fill up Canadian prisons, and become more of a burden for Canadian tax payers.
That's not to mention that there is no evidence to support the theory that this will reduce drug crime. It'll just put some small time dealers in jail, while doing nothing to stop the big drug lords of course. Example A - the U.S. Their war on drugs has been a complete failure and waste of resources.
If Ignatieff is actually going to try and use education and knowledge in his favour (which he should), he can not support this bill. Instead he should do the rational and logical thing and oppose it. He should try to educate Canadians so that they will realize that prison sentences, particularly those of the mandatory variety, are horribly bad policy.
By supporting this bill Ignatieff is pandering to two kinds of people: those who are un-knowingly ignorant of the fact that this law will help no one, and those who are too stubborn to change their beliefs just because a few facts stand in the way.
The first kind of person is who Ignatieff should appeal to with reason and logic, and the other type, he won't win over anyway because it's the base of the Conservative party.
2 comments:
What a disgrace. IMO the "Liberal" Party no longer exists.
This isn't even a debate. Mandatory sentences are a complete failure everywhere they are attempted. Worst of all they are a direct insult to judges. Ignatieff knows all of this and has chosen yet again to side with right. Whether it's to win votes from centre right assholes or because he himself is a big, smelly, fascist is not for me to say. It's bad for Canada either way. I left the Liberal party because of Ignatieff but long before this latest outrage. More and more actual Liberals seem to be seeing him for what he is. I hope they do the same.
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