OTTAWA—The battle against the Conservative government’s “tough-on-crime” agenda began with the tabling Tuesday of a massive anti-crime bill, but in reality will be fought out in Canadian courts in the years to come.

All sides began laying the groundwork for the major legal challenges ahead with critics condemning the measures as overreaching, costly, irresponsible and misdirected, while the government cited its strong electoral mandate to legislate the changes as it sees fit.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson bypassed the usual practice of unveiling legislation in the Commons, and unveiled the bill at one of a series of simultaneously orchestrated news conferences by cabinet ministers touting the “tough-on-crime” moves.

Flanked by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, police officers and crime victims’ advocates, Nicholson said in Brampton the Conservative government hopes to pass it within 100 sitting days of Parliament.

The huge bill runs to about 110 pages, and rolls together nine past proposals to boost police and prosecutorial powers targeting drug traffickers, child sex predators and “out of control” young offenders.

It includes new mandatory minimum sentences for drug and sexual offences, new restrictions on the use of conditional sentences, and tougher pre-trial custody and sentencing provisions for repeat and violent youth offenders.

It would increase a federal minister’s discretion to deny prison-transfer applications by Canadians convicted abroad; make it easier for victims of terrorism to sue supporters of terrorism or state sponsors of terrorism, and make it harder to get a criminal pardon or to win parole.

It also proposes new powers for immigration officers to deny visas to shut down the “foreign stripper” problem, “too often a pathway to exploitation,” said Kenney.

Apart from fulfilling an election promise, the move allows the government to keep a spotlight on what it considers popular “law-and-order” measures at a time when economic news is grim.

Dubbed the Safe Streets and Communities Act, the omnibus bill was condemned by criminal lawyers, prisoner advocates and political critics who pointed to falling crime rates and said the country cannot afford a massive prison expansion.

Nicholson was asked repeatedly about the costs of the bill, but declined to specify projected costs of the measures, or to reveal the federal government’s own projections of increased prison populations.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page’s office is still trying to obtain comprehensive data on the government’s anti-crime agenda.

Critics slammed the moves as “ideological” and said the Conservatives should not divert scarce resources away from treating offenders with mental health problems or addictions.

“We’re being encouraged to believe we need this for public safety,” said Kim Pate, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society. “It’s a farce. If in fact it was true, then the U.S. would be the safest place in the world, the States would not be going bankrupt and they would not be retreating from this agenda.”

Criminal defence lawyer John Rosen predicted there will be many legal and constitutional challenges to the provisions, especially mandatory minimum penalties, which may ultimately succeed.

The Conservatives are trying to “Americanize our system,” he said. Rosen said mandatory minimum penalties violate an accused person’s right to fundamental justice and arguably breach guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment. They will be judged “an inappropriate infringement on the case-by-case analysis that’s been mandated by the Supreme Court in sentencing cases,” he said.

Rosen said that most professionals who work in the justice system — whether defence lawyers, prosecutors, judges, social workers or corrections officials — agree that “the goal is not only to suppress crime but to prevent the recurrence of it, and the government is gradually strangling all of the social programs that address those issues, and address the root causes of crime while spending money to prosecute.”

Asked whether the bill unfairly limits judicial discretion, and whether judges would still be permitted to consider the special circumstances of aboriginal offenders as set out by the Supreme Court of Canada, Nicholson said “the laws apply to everyone.”

“What we provide the courts are maximums and minimums,” said Nicholson, saying it is up to judges to take other factors into account.

The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and the John Howard Society of Canada said it will lead to overcrowded prisons, jeopardize inmates with mental health problems or addictions, divert funding from treatment programs, and dissuade sexual assault victims from pursuing charges against assailants who are often related to them, fearing heavy-handed sentences.

The New Democrats and Liberals immediately promised a fight in Parliament over the bill, which comes with no price tag and no projections about the impact on prison populations.

But the reality is political opponents have fewer legislative tools with which to exact changes, faced with a majority of Conservatives on the justice committee that hears witnesses and considers amendments.

NDP justice critic Joe Comartin acknowledged the Opposition can only rely on a “protocol” of political “diplomacy” that has prevailed in the past and allows witnesses to be called to ensure competing voices are heard.

Except for a proposal that would enable judges to keep the most violent 10 to 15 per cent of young offenders in jail, the bill fails to reflect any amendments previously introduced that died when the election was called. Instead, the Conservatives have reverted to the original forms of the various measures, Comartin said.

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Absent from the omnibus bill are long-promised provisions to increase the powers of police to gain “lawful access” to Canadians’ wireless and Internet communications, or the promised end to the long-gun registry. Those measures, along with a bill to increase the powers of citizen arrest are expected to be introduced separately at a later date.

Read the Star’s Crime and Punishment series here.

Tories propose sweeping criminal justice changes

Crime legislation touches on young offenders, terrorists, drug traffickers and sexual predators.

The federal Conservatives on Tuesday introduced a package of crime and justice legislation, including:

1) The Protecting Children from Sexual Predators Act: It proposes increased penalties for sexual offences against children, as well as creates two new offences aimed at conduct that could facilitate or enable the commission of a sexual offence against a child.

2) The Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act: It proposes tougher sentences for the production and possession of illicit drugs for the purposes of trafficking.

3) Protecting the Public from Violent Young Offenders Act: It would set tougher rules for “violent and repeat” young offenders. That includes the consideration of adult sentences for youth convicted of the most serious violent crimes (murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault).

4) The Ending House Arrest for Property and Other Serious Crimes by Serious and Violent Offenders Act: It would eliminate the use of conditional sentences, or house arrest, for serious and violent crimes.

5) The Increasing Offender Accountability Act: It would enshrine a victim’s right to participate in parole hearings. It would also require “correctional” plans for offenders setting out behavioural expectations, objectives for program participation, and the meeting of court-ordered obligations such as victim restitution or child support.

6) The Eliminating Pardons for Serious Crimes Act: It would extend the ineligibility periods for applications for a record suspension, now known as a pardon, to five years from three for summary conviction offences and to 10 years from five for indictable offences.

7) The Keeping Canadians Safe Act: It would provide additional criteria that the Public Safety Minister could consider when deciding whether to allow the transfer of a Canadian offender back to Canada to serve their sentence.

8) The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act and amendments to the State Immunity Act: It would allow victims of terrorism to sue perpetrators and supporters of terrorism, including listed foreign states, for loss or damage that occurred as a result of an act of terrorism committed anywhere in the world.

9) The Preventing the Trafficking, Abuse and Exploitation of Vulnerable Immigrants Act: It would authorize immigration officers to refuse work permits to vulnerable foreign nationals when it is determined they are at risk of humiliating or degrading treatment, including sexual exploitation or human trafficking.

Bruce Campion-Smith