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Dozens of private member’s bills are introduced every parliamentary session, covering every issue from recreational snow sports helmets to gender identity to feminine hygiene products. The justice system is always a popular target for MPs since such reforms are an easy sell to constituents.

People tend to assume Tories lean toward being tough on crime while Liberals hew to a softer approach. But assumptions have a short shelf life in politics: Right now, the tough-on-crime bill belongs to Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, while the ‘soft’ approach comes from Tory MP Ryan Leef.

Goodale introduced Bill C-533 last fall to amend the Criminal Code to make assaulting on-duty transit operators an aggravating factor in sentencing. In other words, if you punch a bus driver, you would get a tougher sentence than if you punched someone while waiting for a bus.

“The nature of their work puts bus drivers at heightened risk, so Parliament needs to recognize those dangers and take action to stop them,” he said. Mr. Goodale reports that over 2,000 bus drivers suffered assaults in 2011, ranging from spitting to punching. Presumably, Mr. Goodale believes this will deter such behaviour and therefore protect bus drivers.

On their website, the Liberals claim they stand for “evidence-based crime policy”. So I assumed Mr. Goodale based his bill on actual evidence. Again, there’s that problem with assumptions: Turns out there is no evidence to support Mr. Goodale’s bill. No offence to the many hard-working transit operators out there, but this bill will not make a scrap of difference to their safety.

And then there’s Mr. Leef and Bill C-583, which he introduced in March. Mr. Leef thinks an offender who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD) should receive special consideration from the court. His bill would compel the court to consider FASD as a mitigating factor in sentencing.

Mr. Leef’s bill might not have as much support as Mr. Goodale’s — but it makes a lot more sense and it deserves Parliament’s consideration.

FASD is a permanent brain injury that can impair a person’s judgment, make it difficult to control behaviour and impair the ability to understand the consequences of behaviour. “When one in 100 Canadians are born with FASD, which is an alarming rate, and nearly 60 per cent of those will have some conflict with the law … there’s something we need to be doing to reflect that,” said Mr. Leef, a former corrections officer.

The Tories have been accused — by me, among others — of reforming the justice system in spite of the evidence, not because of it. Yet there is a lot of evidence about the link between FASD and crime. It’s not clear how many inmates currently behind bars have FASD, but Corrections Canada suggests it is higher than the general population. They also say that inmates affected by FASD are often not offered services or programs that meet their unique needs and are a higher risk to reoffend.

Now, imagine that both bills — Mr. Goodale’s and Mr. Leef’s — pass. Imagine that a young man or woman with FASD punches a bus driver. Under the Goodale bill, that person would get a tougher sentence because the victim happens to drive a bus for a living. But under the Leef bill, that person might get a lighter sentence because the offender happens to have a brain injury that makes it difficult to control impulses.

Of the two bills, Mr. Goodale’s may be more popular — especially with bus drivers, their families and their unions. People with FASD, especially those in jail, are probably not lobbying their MPs. Mr. Leef’s bill might not have as much support — but it makes a lot more sense and it deserves Parliament’s consideration.

Private member’s bills are chosen through a lottery system — an MP’s name is chosen and he/she can put forward a bill. If Mr. Goodale’s name gets pulled before Mr. Leef’s bill, he should uphold his party’s claim to support evidence based justice reform and give Mr. Leef his ticket.

Of course, the justice minister can champion any bill and make it a government bill, virtually guaranteeing its passage. I assume, given its history, the government would be more likely to choose Goodale’s bill over Leef’s. This is one time I hope they make an ass out of me.

Steve Sullivan has been advocating for victims for almost 20 years, having served as the former president of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime and as the first federal ombudsman for victims of crime. He has testified before numerous parliamentary committees on victims’ rights, justice reform and public safety issues and has conducted training for provincial and federal victim services. He is currently the executive director of Ottawa Victim Services and a part-time professor at Algonquin College in the Victimology Graduate Certificate Program. His views are his own and do not represent any agency with which he is associated.

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