Phil's Partisan Puerile Penal Preposterousness

Here's what Phil McColeman said in Parliament on January 31st, 2011:

Unfortunately, I am afraid that it already seems to be business as usual for some Liberals. Today the member for Ajax-Pickering* is again sticking up for criminals and promoting the failed prison farm system, a program with a dismal rate of success of less than 1%, and which loses millions of tax dollars each year. I call on the Liberal Party public safety critic and his coalition partners to work with us to get results for law-abiding Canadians and victims and to stop putting criminals' rights before those of victims.

[*The member for Ajax-Pickering is Mark Holland, the Conservatives' whipping-boy for soft-on-crime]

Phil is dead wrong for two reasons.

First, prison farms DO work. Here is a direct quote from a recent Report of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, of which Phil is a member:

A literature review conducted by CSC [Correctional Service of Canada] concludes that animal therapy programs not only help participants by improving their behaviour and learning about discipline, as well as their sense of cooperation and respect for others; they also help the staff of correctional institutions since the presence of animals makes the atmosphere more relaxed and encourages communication among inmates. Finally, society as a whole would benefit from these programs since the participating inmates would learn skills that would serve them well in the labour market and would reduce the rate of recidivism.

Animal therapy programs have proven effective and all participating inmates believe that these programs have undeniable benefits at the human level. For this reason, the Committee has difficulty understanding why CSC decided to terminate the farm prison program at penitentiaries by March 31, 2011. Like many of our witnesses, the Committee is convinced that CSC is on the wrong path in this regard and maintains that CSC should actually increase the number of programs based on animal therapy. [footnotes omitted]

The second reason that Phil is dead wrong is because it is actually the CONSERVATIVES who are soft on crime, specifically, they are SOFT ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. From a recent Toronto Sun article:

Tories 'soft’ on child sex crimes: group

The so-called tough-on-crime Tories are "weak" on child sex abuse crimes, according to an anti-child pornography advocacy group.

Brian Rushfeldt, president of Canada Family Action, said Tuesday he's "disappointed" with Bill C-54, the government's efforts to protect children from sexual predators, because it doesn’t go far enough.…

While Bill C-54 does beef up minimum sentences for people convicted of possessing child porn — from 14 days to 90 days for a summary conviction and up to six months for indictable offences — Rushfeldt said the bill does not lengthen sentences for people convicted of making child pornography.

Wow. The "tough-on-crime" Phil McColeman sends pedophiles to prison for a mere 90 days, and does nothing to the monsters who create child pornography. Instead he complains about prison farms, which help keep our society safe. Why doesn't Phil stop playing partisan games and start focusing on the real issues!

Witness: Phil's Committee Meeting

This past weekend I had the luck to visit Ottawa, and took an opportunity to sit in on one of Phil's committee meetings. The Tuesday-morning meeting was scheduled to discuss a review of the Sex Offender Information Registry Act, and to discuss the inquiry into Taser use in Canada.

During the first half of the meeting, the Sex Offender Registry part, Phil spent roughly 80% of his time playing on his BlackBerry under the table, 15% of the time staring distantly out the window across from him, and nearly the rest chewing on his glasses and furrowing his brow. During these two hours, by my count, he made only three written notes.

Other Committee members such as Andrew Kania and Mark Holland asked hard-hitting questions about how to improve the Registry, and illuminated a lack of action by former Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. They were certainly NOT playing with their BlackBerrys. When Phil was finally called on to speak, however, his lack of preparedness was evident – he asked a witness to repeat facts that had actually been clarified earlier:

(clears throat) Well thank you ah again ah for being here and taking the time as you know this committee is charged with the review of ah this legislation and– and we're hearing from all sides and ah of course there's ah been representation on people who feel it's an infringement on human rights. (clears throat) I'll make a statement and then ask my question. I've spent a lot of time with special needs individuals over my life, both children and adults and it concerns me greatly (clears throat) their innocence, just as all victims I suppose, but especially in this and it's gut-wrenching for me to– to contemplate ah uhh uhh the situations that some of them may find themselves in. Ah so I– I definitely bias towards ah giving you the tools you need to do the job in law-enforcement on the street in a time– on a timely basis. It– it was mentioned earlier I think ah by Mr. Nez– Nezan [RCMP Officer in Charge, National Sex Offender Registry] that the– "the current ah setup is inefficient and the integrity of the data is compromised," that's the note that I made from your comments. Can you expand on that a bit?

We pay Phil $155,000 a year for this???

The second half of the committee focused on the Taser Inquiry, following the tragic death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport. This is accordingly a very high-profile inquiry (and one in which Phil has already made a fool of himself). Once all the reporters, observers, and TV cameras entered the room, Phil could no longer play on his BlackBerry under the table without people noticing. So he spent the rest of the meeting chewing on his glasses and furrowing his brow, and contributed… absolutely nothing to the discussion.

A summary of Phil's performance in the Committee is that he is probably a nice, decent guy, but he is an awful politician. And he really, really likes his BlackBerry.