On Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, Senator Tommy Banks rose in the senate chamber of the Houses of Parliament of Canada to give his final senatorial address. While some might scoff at the attributes of members of the upper chamber, being a senator from Alberta is a high political honour.
We have had 14 premiers elected since our entry into confederation. And while we have six seats in the Canadian senate, only 42 senators have represented us since 1911 when Sir Wilfred Laurier appointed Amedee E. Forget, from Banff.
St. Albertans should know that we have been well represented in the senate. Aristide Blais, Ernest Manning, Thelma Chalifoux and sitting senator Claudette Tardif have been either residents or closely associated with our city. These distinguished Canadians are far removed from the caricatures promoted by some members of the lower chamber.
But I digress. I was particularly interested in what Senator Banks would say on his leaving. His distinguished professional career in the arts and his active promotion of preserving our cultural and historical national identity are well known. From this base, one would expect that Senator Banks would want to sum up his public service career by having a final say on the matter in front of his honourable colleagues.
Instead, Senator Banks rose to debate the Safe Streets and Community Act Bill C-10. This is an omnibus bill, which will amend several current acts. The principal, although not the only current acts, are: the State Immunity Act, the Criminal Code, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Bill C-10 will also enact the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.
There are important and pressing matters involved with this legislative bill. These include core value issues such as protecting children from sexual predators; protecting the public from violent young offenders; protecting foreign nationals from human trafficking, abuse or exploitation; supporting victims of terrorism; and transferring Canadian offenders back to Canada (remember Gitmo?)
There are punishment issues as well, such as increasing penalties for organized drug crimes; eliminating pardons for serious crimes; and ending house arrest for property and other serious crimes by violent offenders. And there is an accountability component — increasing offender accountability, including re-arrest provisions.
But when one looks at the content of the bill, the focus is almost entirely on punishment provisions and putting people in jail. It was this issue that Senator Banks argued about. And he is right.
Putting people behind bars can make us feel safer — until the offenders are released. Then we have a cadre of young, illiterate, alienated, mentally distressed, alcohol and drug affected folk back on the street. So, unless this legislation is to be accompanied or immediately followed by educational (literacy), mental health, skill training, transitional support for employment entry and daily living along with family reunification components, the whole effort is doomed to failure. And we haven’t said a peep about prevention.
As it presently stands we are condemned to a future of building more prisons, which will directly cause an increase in our crime rates. We, like California, will end up spending more money on prisoners than on educating our children.
So folks, let’s get started with a new and bigger RCMP headquarters. We are about to pave a road to community endangerment well and truly reinforced with wilful ignorance.
For Tommy and me — California here we come — for orientation purposes only. I wonder if our MP would like to be our tour guide?
Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
