Canadians deserve a meaningful response to the fentanyl crisis, not ill-conceived and draconian ideas – much less costly mandatory-minimum penalties. by Kim Pate for The Globe and Mail. Read the source article here
Characterizing mandatory life sentences as a solution to the toxic-drug crisis, as suggested by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, is misleading and dangerous. Such an approach would undoubtedly exacerbate, not alleviate, the problem. Worse yet, it would result in even more austerity, overcrowded jails, and many more people abandoned to desperate, impoverished and unstable situations, especially to homelessness in our communities.
For the better part of five decades, I have worked and walked with those captured by so-called tough-on-crime and war-on-drugs agendas. These approaches are always toughest on those who are most vulnerable and, as the Parliamentary Budget Officer has shown, these methods come with huge price tags for taxpayers. Indeed, the PBO estimates that they have already cost Canada billions of taxpayer dollars.
Those who are easiest to catch, prosecute and subject to long and punitive prison sentences are not the kingpins of the drug world. Those who benefit most from opioid crises have the means to avoid detection, launder their drug money, and, in the unlikely event they are caught, they typically can hire teams of lawyers to help them avoid legal accountability.
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We are living now with the results: a drug crisis that continues unabated and jails full not of those who cause the most harm or stand to profit from the drug trade, but instead those who are easiest to scoop up and criminalize – people who are poor and homeless, with addictions and mental health issues, and those who are disproportionately racialized.
Remedying the fentanyl crisis will require governments to acknowledge the intersections between drugs, poverty, housing and mental health issues, and to act accordingly.
There is growing evidence in Canada that providing financial security and reducing financial stress reduces violent crimes – precisely 350 fewer violent crimes and 1,400 fewer total crimes per 100,000 people (a 17.5-per-cent reduction). Similarly, in a study of gun-related homicides in New York in the 1990s, a 10-per-cent increase in young adults receiving cash assistance was associated with 10.5 fewer homicides per 100,000 people. Financial security also leads to increased employment, better paying jobs, and improved educational outcomes.
We need to rethink our current costly, inefficient and ineffective approaches. Smart investments in financial security for Canadians can reduce poverty, cut spending and make our government more efficient and effective.
Mr. Poilievre has been clear about his plans to slash federal spending while simultaneously pouring billions into criminal-law measures that will do much damage.
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He has not discussed why he is choosing to focus on those who are easiest to catch, rather than those who benefit most from the drug trade, including businesses and even banks that are used to launder the proceeds of these and other crimes.
How would he ensure accountability for those who hide behind numbered companies or otherwise benefit from the laundering of the proceeds of crime? Why has he not proposed a more transparent process for ensuring that business registries include the identification of beneficial ownership? Why is he not proposing a fix to the situation that saw TD Bank being barely held accountable after they admitted to having knowledge of at least $670-million worth of money laundering, due to non-compliance with existing laws and policies aimed at preventing such activities?
Imprisoning more Indigenous, Black and poor people, as well as those struggling with addiction and mental health issues, will cost a great deal. If and when those Canadians are eventually released from prison, they will face even more challenges and will not find much of a path to acceptance or integration back into their communities. Do we really want to generate more homelessness, poverty and desperation?
We all deserve to know what the human and financial costs of such performative tough-on-crime policies will be and how they will be funded. What will be cut to produce the billions of taxpayer dollars required to jail those who are poor and homeless?
Mr. Poilievre should come clean as soon as possible. Too many Canadians are already struggling to make ends meet and deserve to know what they stand to lose.
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