I am deeply concerned about Omnibus Bill C-10. It is my wife’s research (as a social-work student at Booth University College in Winnipeg) that has refocused my attention to the bill. The more I followed her work, the more concerned I have become.
Firstly, I believe there are some good things in the bill – let me be clear about that. But there are also some alarmingly retrogressive policies that will undoubtably be a black stain on your leadership for decades to come if passed as is. For the love of God and your fellow Canadians, please slow the process of this bill down. Break-up the omnibus to its components and consider each individually and carefully.
Honestly… in the last election I was prepared, for the first time in my life, to vote Conservative. I tend to be a bit left leaning myself, but thought that at this particular juncture perhaps a conservative economic approach trumped other concerns. Also, I live in Conservative MP Joy Smith’s riding and have deeply appreciated her noble fight against human trafficking. But in the end I could not, by extension, sign my name to a bill that blanketly criminalizes the ill and the desperate when other measures are proven to be cheaper, more effective and more humane.
I have no need to demonize those who have different opinions than me. But please tell me… who is being served by taking away the power of judges to discern individual cases and sentence accordingly? Who is being served by harsh punitive measures for crimes that are rooted in addictions and poverty when prevention and restorative measures are proven to be far more effective? Who is being served by costly measures that disrupt family and community economies instead of promoting personal responsibility and community well-being? We need a much more sophisticated and nuanced response to crime and public safety than what this bill will produce.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that you, who shares the same Christian faith I embrace, propose to rule out discernment and mercy from the justice system. A broad-scope survey of Biblical history shows a slow but progressive movement away from a merciless justice which favours retribution to restoration.
Know also, my convictions come from lifelong experience of the Canadian Penitentiary system. My father was a protestant Chaplain who served roughly 30 years in federal prisons in Drumheller, Stony Mountain, Edmonton and, toward the end of his career, as regional Chaplain of the Maritime Provinces. Dad is a thoughtful man who tends toward a more conservative ideology, but finds himself utterly bewildered and alienated from ideologies that do not honour or respect the long hard work of practitioners in the field, expert research or verifiable fact.
Mr. Harper, please reconsider. I don’t believe you have the majority of Canadians’ support for this. You certainly do not have the support of experts in the field. Again, this administration will be well remembered for a costly mistake in judgement in support of structures that will have to be dismantled at great expense to the individuals, families and communities that make up our nation.
Meanwhile, I do sincerely pray for your health and the well being of your beloved. I wish you every good success in the office with which you have been charged and I thank you for carrying the weighty burden the office demands.
Respectfully,
Steve Bell
singer/ songwriter
Winnipeg
For those of you concerned about the pending Omnibus Crime Bill C-10, there is an online petition to register your alarm. There may be other petitions (I don’t know the folks behind this one) but at this point I will sign my name alongside any co-beligerants who anticipate the harm of this bill. I wrote a letter to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson similar to the one to Mr. Harper below.
You can access the on-line petition at: http://leadnow.ca/keep-canada-safe
Also – all of the information to write, email or contact on-line Mr. Harper is on the government’s site: Contact Stephen Harper
Please note - though my political sentiments tend to be left leaning, this letter is not anti-Conservative or anti-Harper. It is honest concern about a particular bill that I think is extremely unwise and will be tragically harmful if passed as is. Also, I welcome supportive or contrary opinion below, but will delete comments that smack of vitriol or character assasination.
Thanks to Steve for a very sensitive response to the Omnibus Bill. And thanks to Henk for your comments. "The fog of war" is an expression of battlefield confusion that aptly applies to all Western Christian attempts to justify a nation’s engagement in war according to “just war” criteria; criteria that have been neither biblical (from St. Augustine onwards who first proposed such), nor met in any Western Christendom war (according to John Howard Yoder – see: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=107). Errol Morris did a documentary by the same title in which former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara openly admits the Western Allies committed massive war crimes that could have found them guilty at a War Crimes Tribunal – had they lost the War!
Since President Nixon’s administration first coined the expression “war on crime” to promulgate same, and a subsidiary “war on drugs”, there has been a similar “fog of war on crime”. No scientific criteria from any criminological/juridical realm justifies such violence; no credible biblical view of justice can ignore shalom (as Henk suggested) as ultimate goal.
Despite this, a current Conservative Christian cabinet member told me approvingly in good faith that thirteen Conservative Christian MP’s totally support the current government’s anti-crime initiatives because they are “balanced”. (Though “balance” is hardly a biblical category of a God who indiscriminately lavishes rain and sun on the evil and good!) Though there is not a shred of evidence to support the legitimacy of most of this government’s anti-crime initiatives. As to this second point, I encourage people to peruse a collection of evidence-based responses to the Conservative government’s anti-crime initiatives by clicking on this page, http://m2w2.com/wp/about-m2w2/restorative-justice/, and cursoring down to over two dozen articles and counting under the title: “Responses to the 2011 Omnibus Bill C-10, “Safe Streets and Communities Act”, and similar legislation”.
There appears to be at work in this case indeed a “fog of war on crime” that is at once profoundly anti-scientific, and profoundly anti-Christian. (See my article, http://www.clarion-journal.com/clarion_journal_of_spirit/2011/10/m2w2-and-enemy-love-as-core-gospel-by-wayne-northey.html, on this website as one brief pointer to the biblical issues.)
Even more blaring “fog horns” are needed to “whistle-blow” the “nofar” (no facts, no analysis, no research) and the ethical bankruptcy ("pharisaism" in Jesus' world) of these anti-crime measures. Steve Bell showed us however how to “blare the truth in love”. May thousands “Go and do likewise”!
A good place to begin is a visit, phone call, letter, etc. with/to your MP, and your MLA. Tell the latter that you want the province to refuse to pay for any of the Conservative crime bills unless they meet rigorous scientific and biblical ethical scrutiny.
Posted by: Wayne Northey | November 05, 2011 at 08:18 AM
Thanks Steve. I too am very concerned, and see the issue as a lack of ethics on the part of the Conservatives; they will not look at evidence, or look to the South where mass incarceration has not worked. They are pragmatic politicians and using this issue and the human beings involved for their own political advantage. The crime bills have for quite some time been a handy tool to gain votes...sadly in todays world, and even in many churches, votes are not won by being percieved to be soft on crime...whatever that means. Politics can be brutal, the realm of principalties and powers and politicians of all stripes in Ottawa need our prayers and our prohetic voices calling out for justice...oh that word has been so abused, lets call for shalom.. Henk S.Surrey BC.
Posted by: Henk Smidstra | November 04, 2011 at 04:03 PM