Day says new prisons needed for 'unreported crimes'

[Connie Fournier]

Day says new prisons needed for 'unreported crimes'

Updated: Tue Aug. 03 2010 5:14:07 PM
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/C ... OttawaHome
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Opposition critics are scratching their heads over Stockwell Day's claim that Canada needs more prisons because many crimes go unreported.

Day, president of the Treasury Board, was asked Tuesday why the Conservative government intends to spend billions of dollars on expanding prisons at a time of falling crime.

"People simply aren't reporting the same way they used to," he responded. "I'm saying one statistic of many that concerns us is the amount of crimes that go unreported. Those numbers are alarming and it shows that we can't take a liberal view to crime."

However, he didn't provide any evidence of an increase in unreported crimes, or a description of what types of crime go unreported. He also didn't explain how unreported crime relates to the need for new prisons.

Statistics Canada's latest compilation of crime reported to police, issued last month, shows overall crime dropped by seven per cent in 2007, continuing a downward trend since the rate peaked in 1991. The report found a decline in homicides, attempted murders, sexual assaults and robberies.

Still, Day said the government will push ahead with its tough-on-crime agenda, including building new prisons. He added the government supports more mandatory sentences to take discretion away from judges, increased jail times and eliminating "discount sentencing."

Liberal MP Mark Holland accused the government of trying to justify a bad policy with non-existent statistics. If anything, he said, reporting of sexual crime -- which is historically under-reported -- has increased over the years as the stigma has lessened.

But even if the minister is correct, Holland wondered how that would result in the need for more prison spaces.

"You need prisons to lock up people who are not being charged? Unless you are suggesting throwing away habeas corpus and rounding up everybody who looks suspicious, it makes no sense."

New Democrat MP Don Davies said the government is again choosing ideology over the facts.

"Crime rates have been dropping steadily and consistently across categories for decades," he said. "So faced with those statistics, they turn to unreported crimes. Why in 2010 would you be less likely to report a crime than in 1980 or 1990?"

In March, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews also referred to victimization surveys to make the case that crime has not declined in Canada. Toews told a parliamentary committee that surveys compiled by Statistics Canada in 1999 and 2004 showed "a huge increase in crime in this country ... I believe it's somewhere between 15 per cent and 19 per cent."

Statistics Canada conducts a survey of individuals every five years to ask if they have been victims of a crime, and whether they reported it to police. Results of the 2009 survey will not be published until September, but the 2004 report does show a slight decrease, from 37 per cent to 34 per cent, of reported crimes.

An agency analyst said the No. 1 reason given by individuals for not calling the police about a crime is that they believe it was not serious enough. Only two per cent said they feared retribution, and one per cent said they felt the police may be biased.

[Connie Fournier]

This government is giving me the creeps.

[backhoe]

Well, Connie, let me- a Heathen Furriner-- pipe up...

This is one of the weirdest examples of circular "reasoning" ( more like unreason ) that I have ever encountered.

If a crime is unreported, it can't be prosecuted, and no one can be convicted of it, and sent to prison.

But this bird wants more prisons, anyway?

I suggest he lock himself up first, as a menace to society.

[One Truth]

This government is giving me the creeps.

Over this?

He's right about crime going unreported. Nobody bothers to call the police anymore unless they intend to make an insurance claim. If burning a police cruiser in broad daylight in downtown Toronto isn't enough to get the coppers exercised, what is?

If the courts would send someone to prison now and then for a reasonable period of time, people might gain a little confidence in the system and start using it. In the meantime, everybody knows the police are nothing but a tax-collecting joke.

[MikeNB]

Sounds like a fumble by Day to me. The tough on crime bill, should it be passed and effective, will require more prison space at least in the short term. If space werent available the Bill couldnt be passed for obvious reasons.

[LAR]

The logic escaped me as well. I'm sure there's a lot of unreported crime but spending billions for more prisons isn't going to do anything about it.

[DA_Champion]

The logic escaped me as well.

I think he's implying or he believes that the conservatives are going to solve this unreported crime problem.

[One Truth]

The logic escaped me as well.

I think he's implying or he believes that the conservatives are going to solve this unreported crime problem.

That seems clear, in a stumble-bum-Stockwell-Day kind of way.

[LAR]

The logic escaped me as well.

I think he's implying or he believes that the conservatives are going to solve this unreported crime problem.

While you're acting as Stockwell's interpreter could you tell us how they're going to cause unreported crime to become reported?
These people need to explain themselves so we know they're making responsible decisions with our money.

[free_life2]

What we have been reporting the crimes of CHRC for years.

[One Truth]

While you're acting as Stockwell's interpreter could you tell us how they're going to cause unreported crime to become reported?

See the second paragraph of my post just three or four earlier.

[Connie Fournier]

This is the same government that appointed Jennifer Lynch, and the same government under whose watch Linda Gibbons and Bruce Montague are currently rotting in prison.

The fact that they want more prisons gives me the creeps because Harper's Conservatives seem a little bit too eager to make criminals out of ordinary Canadians.

I have always respected Stockwell Day, but, as of today, even he is scaring me.

[Connie Fournier]

When it is clear that crime rates are going down, why do we need more people in prison, anyway?

Who will they fill those new cells with if there aren't enough violent criminals? We know they won't be left empty.

[ChangingColours]

When it is clear that crime rates are going down, why do we need more people in prison, anyway?

Who will they fill those new cells with if there aren't enough violent criminals? We know they won't be left empty.

People who:
-Criticize the government?
-Express free opinion?
-Speak out against oppression?
-Me?
-You?

... Hopefully my (tinfoil) hat is working overtime here.

[One Truth]

This is the same government that appointed Jennifer Lynch, and the same government under whose watch Linda Gibbons and Bruce Montague are currently rotting in prison.

The fact that they want more prisons gives me the creeps because Harper's Conservatives seem a little bit too eager to make criminals out of ordinary Canadians.

I have always respected Stockwell Day, but, as of today, even he is scaring me.

Well, yeah. But you didn't really expect any remaining Government of Canada to be anything but an agent of decline and destruction, did you? At this point there's not really any changing the fact that we're all lemmings headed for the cliff. Just try to stay near the back, is all.