Stephen Harper’s legislative agenda on crime reinforces the notion that he has created a fact-free zone in Ottawa.

According to a thorough analysis of the government’s initiatives, more than 30 per cent of Harper’s current parliamentary docket is devoted to a bundle of fear-factor “tough on crime” bills. All of this at a time when crime stats are going south. And the human and fiscal costs of all of this are staggering.

According to Paula Mallea, lawyer and research associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Harper’s agenda has more to do with rehabilitating his “tough guy” image and zero to do with rehabilitating either offenders or his $54 billion deficit.

Naturally, passing this fear-factor legislation in a minority context requires opposition support and the Liberals and NDP, the latter only a touch less feckless than the former, don’t want to be accused of being soft on crime. In my books, being dumb on crime is worse.

Released today, Mallea’s 40-page report, The Fear Factor: Stephen Harper’s Tough on Crime Agenda provides a detailed story of peekaboo politics, horrendous public policy, and runaway and wasteful costs.

Publicly provided evidence from Statistics Canada revealed that crime continues to go down across the country, with violent crime moving clearly in the right direction, according to the new Crime Severity Index.

And all we have had from Harper and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is double-talk when questioned about their agenda in light of the evidence. But let’s see how they respond to this new report.

Here is one example. Without having a clue as to costs, the government passed a law eliminating a two-for-one credit for time served in remand custody. If someone served 30 days while awaiting a chance at justice and was then convicted, he used to get credit for 60 days when it came to sentencing. Why? Because conditions in remand are the worst of the worst. And because remand time is “dead time,” not considered when calculating release dates. The effect of this new law will be disproportionate for marginalized populations, especially aboriginal peoples.

But on the face of it, it appears to be a good idea to scrap the two-for-one credit, the kind of superficial bumper-sticker policy that was opposition-proof. Then, after the bill’s passage, Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page did an analysis of costs, concluding that the bill to taxpayers will amount to a minimum of $5 billion over five years for this single piece of legislation — about what would be required for a national early-learning and care program that would, among so many other things, reduce the illiteracy that is so highly correlated with crime.

And what about getting really tough on drugs and ensuring that if someone is caught growing six marijuana plants for the purpose of trafficking (e.g. sharing with his friends and providing arthritis relief for his grandmother), he will get a minimum of six months in jail.

In British Columbia alone, this new minimum sentence for growers will generate at least 500 more prisoners — and the need for millions of bucks to house them, including building a whole new prison.

These are just a couple of the new crime bills that constitute “public safety” overkill. Collectively, the Harper fear-factor package will yield a major increase in numbers of offences, longer sentences and horrible prison conditions.

All of the available evidence points to more rather than less crime with this scenario. And for a government that boasts about being the taxpayer’s buddy, this will all result in huge costs to the taxpayer with worse than no return on this non-investment.

And public safety?

How about this one: If an offender is not granted parole, he will serve out his entire sentence, and then will be released to the street without supervision. Excuse me, but denial of parole connotes danger ahead. So someone gets released after serving his entire sentence in awful conditions, and zip supervision upon release? Is that a cost-cutting measure? No. Is it a recipe for recidivism? Absolutely.

In a complementary political move, Harper must have done cartwheels when former Toronto and Ontario top cop Julian Fantino said yes to running in the upcoming by-election in Vaughan. No one would deny Fantino his bona fides as a crime fighter and that’s the point. If he wins, Harper has a poster boy for his get-tough approach that will yield the exact opposite of its claims with resulting rising human and financial costs. It will be interesting to see what percentage of Vaughan voters will actually buy the Harper fear-factor gambit regarding public safety.

Many have recently castigated Harper’s regime for being rudderless. Having read this report, I would rather take “rudderless” than witness this “full steam ahead — in the wrong direction” stuff. Even Corrections Canada and victims’ rights groups have expressed their concerns about the direction of this agenda.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Don’t just do something, stand there, Prime Minister . . . while the rest of us yearn for a dose of evidence-based politics.

Charles Pascal is a professor at the University of Toronto and a former Ontario deputy minister.

Read more about: