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Shortly after tabling legislation to repeal a number of mandatory minimum sentences and toallow for more conditional sentences for offenders who don'tpose a threat to the public Justice Minister David Lametti declared that the Liberal government was "turning the page on a failed Conservative criminal justice policy."

Turning a page on Conservative-era justice policy is no insignificant step, even if it took the Liberals five and a half years to take it. Still, there are other pages that remain unturned.

For the nine years they were in office, Stephen Harper's Conservatives were keen to appear "tough" on crime perhaps more keen than any federal government in recent history.At the centre of that push was the creation and enhancement of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions.

In 2004, before the Harper government came to office, 24 federal offences were subject to mandatory minimum sentences. By 2015, the number of offences that carried mandatory minimums had tripled to 72.

Lametti's office saysthe newbill will reduce that number by 20 offences, largely related to drugs and firearms.

The emotional appeal of getting tough on crime is obvious and mandatory minimum penaltiesmight reassure those Canadians who believe the justice system is too lenient.

But as the Harper government expanded the use of mandatory minimums, experts in justice policy protested that such sentencing guidelines had not been shown to actually deter crime. The Conservatives carried on undaunted.

While mandatory minimums are not likely to actually reduce crime, theyare likely to result in disproportionate punishments and send people to prison who could safely and more productively be dealt with through other means. Mandatory minimums also havebeen blamed for over-burdening the court system by reducing the ability to negotiate plea deals.

Long before Thursday, the courts already hadstarted to tear pages out of the Harper government's legislative legacy. The Supreme Court struck down two mandatory minimum sentences for gun-related offences in 2015 and then one mandatory minimum related to a drug offense in 2016. Lower courts in different provinces also haveruled against a number of other sentencing edicts.

"Yes, they're turning the page," saidLisa Kerr, a law professor at Queen's University who has written about the Harper government's justice policies. "Did they have to turn the page at this point? Really, they did. The courts really made this legislative reform necessary."

While thecourts were raising objections, the Trudeau governmentseemed interested in pursuing a comprehensive rewrite of the justice regimethe Harper Conservatives left behind at least briefly.The mandate letter issued to Jody-Wilson Raybould, Trudeau's first justice minister, asked her to "conduct a review of the changes in our criminal justice system and sentencing reforms over the past decade."

In 2017, Wilson-Raybould said that a "revisiting" of mandatory minimums would be "coming in the very near future." But that didn't happen.

Though the exact details are difficult to pin down, it seems that Wilson-Raybould and the rest of the government could not agree on how exactly to proceed. A report on the government's consultations, issued several months after Wilson-Raybould was replaced by Lametti, acknowledged a consensus that further sentence reforming was necessary. But the mandate letter issued to Lametti in December 2019referred onlyto increasing the use of drug treatment courts.

But then, last summer, the scourge of systemic racism came to the fore politically driven by the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. As part of the Trudeau government's response, Lametti was charged with taking "action to address systemic inequities in the criminal justice system."

On that note, after announcing a turning of the page on Thursday, Lametti spokeat length about how mandatory minimum sentences contribute to a system that disproportionatelypunishes Black Canadians and Indigenous peoples.The minister also thanked Liberal MP Greg Fergus, chair of the parliamentary black caucus.

Maybe the Trudeau government eventuallywould have gotten back to dealing with justice reform without the Black Lives Matter movement pushing it. But the movement and the truths it held up to the light seem to havegiven the Liberals an opening to do so now.

"Overall, these reforms would make our system of sentencing law and policy much more coherent and humane," Kerr said.

The political risks are likely very real, though. If you're not obviously getting "tough" on crime, you're susceptible to the charge of being "soft" on crime.As Kerr notes, thepolitical challenge of explaining a differentapproachmight account for why the Liberals took this long to get here.

A justice department survey in 2017 suggested that Canadians want judges to have the discretion to consider the facts of a particular case. But public attention tends to focus on cases where the punishment does not seem to match the seriousness of the crime. And any government that removes a mandatory minimum sentence presumably has to worry about being blamed for any unintended consequences that result down the road.

At the same time, reformers will protestthat the Liberals have not gone nearly far enough; eliminating 20 mandatory minimums still leaves 52 on the books. Further court rulings may compel the government to repeal other sentences.

Sen.Kim Pate, who is sponsoring legislation that would give judges the discretion to disregard any mandatory minimum provision, said in a statement on Thursday that the government had "stopped short of taking the kinds of bold steps we need right now."

Beyond the imposition of mandatory minimums, the Harper government also made other controversial changes the Liberals have yet to reverse.The Conservatives made those who have been convicted of a crime wait longer and pay more to apply for a pardon. It abolished the "faint hope" clause for those serving life sentences.

Kerr suggests the Liberals could also revisit the Conservative decision to eliminate "accelerated parole," which allowed non-violent, first-time offenders to get out of prison earlier.

There are likely few, if any, votes to be won by tackling such issues. But atotal reversal of Conservative crime policy would require taking a few more political risks.

Read this article:
Why the Liberals took the long road to sentencing reform - CBC.ca

The Canadian Press

Two days before the storm began, Houstons chief elected official warned her constituents to prepare as they would for a major hurricane. Many took heed: Texans who could stocked up on food and water, while nonprofits and government agencies set out to help those who couldnt. But few foresaw the fiasco that was to come. They could not be prepared. As temperatures plunged and snow and ice whipped the state, much of Texas power grid collapsed, followed by its water systems. Tens of millions huddled in frigid homes that slowly grew colder or fled for safety. And a prideful state, long suspicious of regulation and outside help, was left to seek aid from other states and humanitarian groups as many of its 29 million people grasped for survival. Images of desperate Texans circulated worldwide. To some, they evoked comparisons to a less wealthy or self-regarding place. To others, they laid bare problems that have long festered. A week after she warned her countys nearly 5 million residents about the impending storm, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was sleeping on an air mattress at the countys emergency operations centre. Her home had been without power for three nights. Its worth asking the question: Who set up this system and who perpetuated it knowing that the right regulation was not in place? Hidalgo said. ___ Around 2 a.m. Monday, the full measure of the crisis Texas faced began to be apparent. Cold and ice had set in the day before, leading to spreading power outages across the state. But standing in the emergency operations centre early Monday, Hidalgo and others learned that their local energy provider, CenterPoint Energy, would not be able to roll outages between homes as they had been told earlier. Instead of short intervals of heat, enough to keep their homes safe, residents would have to go without for days on end. Power outages spiraled through the day Monday, ultimately cutting off more than 4 million people. Grocery stores shut down and hotel rates skyrocketed. People who fled to the homes of relatives or neighbours had to consider the risks of contracting or spreading coronavirus. Ashley Archer and her husband decided to take in his best friend at their suburban Dallas home. She is pregnant and has been trying to protect herself from the virus for nearly a year. The friend is like family, she said. We werent going to let him freeze at his place. Things got worse Tuesday. Thousands of people sought refuge from their freezing homes in warming shelters. Others sat in their cars; dozens were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning. A woman and her daughter died after running their car inside a garage. At her Dallas condominium, 51-year-old Stephanie Murdoch layered in blankets, two pairs of pants, two sweaters, three pairs of socks, a hat, and gloves. Her anger grew at the power companies and their apparent lack of preparation. Weve got another blast of snow coming in this evening ... and still no clear answers as to why the grids arent working better, she said. By Wednesday, some started to get their power back, but a new shortage emerged -- drinkable water. Frozen pipes burst across the state. And the water that did come out of taps was often undrinkable due to dangerously low water pressure levels. At one point, an estimated 13 million people were under a boil-water order, nearly half of Texas population. More than 35 people in Texas have been confirmed dead. That number was expected to rise as roads cleared and relatives and first responders could check on missing loved ones. Mark Henry, Galveston Countys judge, asked the state early in the week to send a refrigerated truck requested by the local medical examiner, who expected an influx of bodies. If they had been honest with us from the beginning, we would have ordered evacuations. But they didnt tell us that, he said. ___ The disaster can be traced to mistakes by Texas leadership and faults created by decades of opposition to more regulations and preparation. Basically, the state is an island in the U.S. electrical system. There is one large grid covering the Eastern half of the country, another for the West, with Texas wedged between them. There is a long and colorful history to how this came to be, but the simplest explanation is that Texas utilities wanted to be free of federal regulation. They accomplished that, going back to the middle of the last century, by avoiding sending power across state lines. The Texas grid isnt walled off, but there are only a few, small interconnection points with the Eastern U.S. grid and Mexico. In the past, utility executives have argued that the Texas grid would be less reliable and more vulnerable to blackouts if it were fully connected to the rest of the country which would make it easier for other states to tap Texas during their own shortages. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, was created in 1970; it became a more powerful broker over electricity flows after deregulation in this century. In the wake of the storm, it has taken most of the blame from Texas politicians and the public. Despite efforts by some Republicans to blame clean energy, the failures occurred in every part of the sector. While wind turbines and solar panels froze, a major nuclear plant lost half of its generation, and there were massive failures in coal, oil, and natural gas. Demand surged, meanwhile, as people accustomed to mild Texas winters turned on their heat. In 2011, millions of Texans lost power during the Super Bowl, which was played in a Dallas suburb. Two agencies, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, conducted a study on how Texas could winterize its energy infrastructure. At the highest end, winterizing 50,000 gas wells would cost an estimated $1.75 billion, the study found. Of the 2011 storm, the report said generators and natural gas producers said they had winterization procedures in place. However, the poor performance of many of these generating units and wells suggests that these procedures were either inadequate or were not adequately followed. But there was no broad move to winterize equipment. Since then, bills requiring energy producers to hold more power in reserve or ordering a study of how to better prepare for winter failed in the Republican-controlled Texas House. Texas lawmakers deregulated the energy market in 2002. Supporters say this lowered energy prices statewide, but critics say it gave producers leeway to avoid improvements that might have prevented events like this weeks catastrophe. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has promised multiple investigations of this storm and made ERCOT an emergency item for the legislature, which is currently in its biennial session. I think there is going to have to be a serious inquiry into why it was, what were the factors that led the grid not to be able to meet the energy needs of Texas, said Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz spoke Thursday evening in the yard of his home in Houstons wealthiest neighbourhood, River Oaks. He had cut short a trip to Cancun, Mexico, after images circulated of him waiting at a Houston airport for his flight to the resort town. At weeks end, as the cold weather began to loosen its grip, the power grid came back online for most Texans. But burst pipes had flooded thousands of homes. Earlier in the week, Abbott had asked plumbers from other states to come to Texas and help. But fixing pipes is one thing. Fixing a whole state is another. Nomaan Merchant, The Associated Press

Link:
Liberals move to add weeks to EI, COVID-19 benefits for workers and parents - Yahoo Canada Finance

They want to talk about some fake political scientist leading farmer protests? Okay, so we will start debating the ideas of this unqualified non-intellectual. We will criticize him, debunk him, expose him and more generally make this individual the centerpiece of national attention.

Then, they want to talk about some climate activist. So we oblige. They talk about how she is a wonderful person who wants to fill the world with rainbows and unicorns (and smoke from crop stubble burning). They will write revolutionary poetry about her spending a couple of days in custody. We will take that on and expose the hypocrisy of climate groups, sinister meetings with possible Khalistanis, speculate and debate her motivations and so on

They want to talk about high fuel prices? So, we will talk about that. If the prices of onions were soaring right now, we would talk about that too But they are not, so we will talk about fuel. When the price of fuel goes down and the price of onions goes up, we will talk about onions.

The following taunt probably applies to me as much as anyone else on the online right. Are we opponents of the liberals or their court jesters?

They choose the topics, they set the agenda. We desperately debate and try to debunk them. They have nothing but contempt for our ideas, our words and our very existence. On the other hand, we try to engage with them, persuade them and generally make them feel like they are the most important people in the world.

The question is: Why are the news cycles all being set by the liberals?

Do you remember the Bihar state elections? Those may seem like a long time ago, but it has barely been three months. Why? Because immediately after the election results were declared, liberals switched the news cycle to the so called farmers protest. Remember how excited journalists could hardly stay on their feet when the exit polls from Bihar came out. Remember the electric atmosphere in TV studios that night? And remember them swooning over the crowds at Tejashwis rallies?

Do you think Bihar would have been forgotten in 24 hours or less if liberals had got the result they wanted? But we let it happen. We stopped talking about Bihar because they stopped talking about Bihar! Imagine that.

The same applies right now to the economy. How are we letting the biggest story in India slip through the cracks? Anyone care about the economy? Why arent we talking about the economy?

By all accounts, India has pulled off an absolutely stunning turnaround after the body blow from Covid. The GDP growth may turn out positive in the Oct-Dec quarter itself, bringing India out of technical recession. Most forecasters agree that India will show the highest GDP growth among all major economies in 2021. Everything is on a high, be it auto sales or electricity consumption. The GST collection in Jan 2021 rose 8% over Jan 2020 to an all time high of Rs 1.2 lakh crore. Even in the pandemic year, India saw 13% growth in FDI. Only one other major country showed positive FDI growth in 2020 and it was China, which was far behind at just 4%.

No wonder the Sensex is zooming. Forex reserves have reached unprecedented levels. Note that even during the pandemic, while other BRIC currencies like Brazilian Real and Russian Rubles collapsed by 25-33%, the Indian Rupee held firm, falling no more than 3-4%.

This is remarkable. It is a stinging slap in the faces of all those screaming headlines by both economists (and all weather experts) from last year. When the government spoke about a V-shaped recovery last year, they were roundly mocked. Well, the V-shaped recovery is right here.

But why arent we talking about this? How did the economy go out of the headlines? Or more precisely, why did we let them take it out of the headlines?

Remember when Indias GDP dropped by a 23.9% in the April-June quarter last year? Anyone with any sense could see that this was the fallout of a once in century pandemic. But liberals didnt buy the explanation. They blamed the government for pushing India into a recession. They couldnt stop talking about the economy back then. And they went on news shows and ridiculed people for talking about anything else.

Okay, so why are we talking about some 21 year old now instead of talking about our great economic recovery. If liberals insist she was not a threat to anyone, they should ignore her, no? And talk about the economy like they wanted to back in August or September.

But this post is not about the liberals. This is about the online right indulging whatever the left wants to talk about.

Remember their point about worst performing economy? That has vanished too. The -24% figure was just for one quarter in the whole year. The final number for 2020 will be around -7%. For comparison, countries such as the UK have seen a 10% contraction in 2020. So the worst performer tag was just an illusion. A momentary thing because India adopted the strictest lockdown in the world. By all accounts, it worked. The pandemic stalled.

All nightmare projections about collapse of Indias healthcare system were proved wrong. During the lockdown, hundreds of millions of people received food aid through a digitized system with minimal leaks. Once the lockdown was lifted, there was V-shaped recovery in the economy. And all of this was achieved with minimal stimulus, which saved our fiscal math.

The smart people second guessed us at each stage. More so, they heckled us at each stage. They made no secret of their contempt for everything India did during the pandemic. They reveled in their belief about how wrong we were.

When the green shoots began to emerge in October, they screamed pent up demand. For a while. Then, one by one, they felt silent. Never in history have so many smart people been wrong about such a big thing on such a global scale.

So why arent we rubbing the egg on their faces? Why arent we heckling them till they emerge from under their desks, mumbling excuses for their claimed status as international experts? If any of their doomsday predictions had come true, do you think they would have let us be?

So how about we dont wait for them this time. How about we start drawing the line on mainstream media, social media and all available forums and demand that people talk about the economy? How about we demand that these liberal experts (qualified economists and otherwise) explain their past remarks or publicly eat crow? Lets not allow this moment to pass. They would not let it go. So why should we?

Original post:
Self criticism for the online right: Why are we giving liberals a free pass on the economy right now? - OpIndia

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Is it possible that announcements like this one could be intended as a distraction from other matters? Like vaccine procurement?

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Good to see Canadas Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus ORegan, is back in his office after his sojourn to dear Newfoundland, on behalf of Premier Furey, in the botched provincial election. The election itself was halted, or cancelled, or put on ice to use a phrase after the province had, for it, a huge spike in COVID cases. Prior to the lets call it a postponement Mr. ORegan was out doing the old door-to-door with various Liberal candidates, a sprightly sight for Newfoundlanders weary from lockdowns, February and firing up the woodstove.

But as said hes back now, and back at what remains his prime ministers absolutely No. 1 fixation, trimming Canadas carbon-dioxide emissions. Adorning Twitter Thursday was the ministers message that Hallelujah Electric snowmobiles will get us to net-zero. How sweet it is to know after a full year of COVID and lockdowns, businesses failing from one coast to the other, people almost driven numb by anxiety and loss of normal socialization, that someone is keeping, as they say, their eye on the ball, and tending to the important things, namely, exhaust from winter recreational vehicles. And to think some complain they dont have their priorities straight.

Im not sure of this but it could well be that, next alone to bovine flatulence, snowmobiles powered by gasoline might be one of the great triggers of global warming. Now with a plan to build a mighty fleet, battery-powered, we have Mr. ORegans pledge that Canada will edge ever closer to a non-carbon, net-zero economy. (That is, with this proviso, that the perpetual shutdown wont absolutely and completely destroy the Canadian economy first.)

Electric snowmobiles is an idea whose time has come. Purring along over the frozen tundra, or out in the wild barrens of Newfoundland, skirting the magnificent hills and valleys in Alberta, the electric snowmobile will be Canadas all-time signal, that regardless of China and its coal mines, the oil-gushing Middle East, or Indias push for industry, the Paris Accords are safe and Canada is back.

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The tweet didnt expand with any detail on accompanying developments. In my own province for example, if a band of merry snowmobilers are roving the long- abandoned railway line, or even more daringly out on the dread Witless Bay Barrens, in temperatures even colder than, say, Texas yesterday, and the batteries fail, what do they do?

Wheres the charging station? In that little clump of spruce trees over there? Not likely. Perhaps near some landmark familiar to the outdoors types. Nope. And despite their populous presence along the provinces bit of Trans-Canada Highway, you will not find an Irving Station in the loon-haunted wildernesses of Newfoundland and Labrador. You can go miles and miles in country and theres not a gas station to be found anywhere. Strange, isnt it?

It is a feature of the Newfoundland wild: the absence of charging stations. And this is not a new thing. Even a hundred years ago the few who ventured into the interior of Newfoundland found themselves nonplussed even fraught, which is worse than nonplussed by the absence of power outlets. Thats why they left the iPhones home when they travelled inland.

So unless someone invents the Near-Infinite Extension Cord, I am not entirely confident that battery-powered snowmobiles are going to make the top of the Christmas wish list for any winter-loving, outdoor-living Canadian sportsman.

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Another point. There is an awful amount of sheer outdoors in Canada. And the thought of populating the Great White North with charging stations might even daunt this global-warming-fraught Liberal government. Besides, I am certain that the environmentalists themselves would see this as a desecration on the natural environment. There would be protests. There would be blockades. There would be CBC specials.

We have a better chance of building pipelines than siting thousands of charging stations for the pure benefit of the Canadian snowmobiler.

So while I hail Minister ORegans thought, I fear the electric snowmobile will face a tough reception. It will not fly as easily as his other great initiatives, planting two billion trees, to keep the 300 billion trees Canada already has company. The trees will fly. The EV snowmobile in the ditch before it even hits the ignition.

A last flash, is it possible that announcements like this one could be intended as a distraction from other matters? Like vaccine procurement? Vast, unchecked expenditures? A mostly closed Parliament? WE scandals? Conflict-of-interest?

On reflection I think not. That would imply a measure of cynicism in the present administration. And in the five years they have been in power we have not a smidgen, not a jot or tittle, of a suggestion that they are capable of such.

National Post

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Rex Murphy: The electric snowmobile will save us all. The Liberals have said so - National Post

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In a document published Friday, the federal government makes over 50 proposals that aim to counter the decline of French across the country

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OTTAWA The Trudeau government is proposing a series of sweeping language reforms that will intervene vigorously to counter and remedy the decline of French in Canada.

In a roughly 30-page document titled English and French: Towards the substantive equality of official languages in Canada published Friday, the government makes over 50 proposals that aim to counter the decline of French across the country and reinforce a sense of linguistic security.

For example, making employers of federally regulated industries (such as telecommunications or airlines) communicate with employees in French in Quebec and other strongly francophone areas; making bilingualism mandatory for future Supreme Court judges, and increasing the number of French immersion teachers (and thus, classes) outside of Quebec.

According to Mlanie Joly, the minister of Official Languages, the idea is to reach true equality between English and French.

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Because of globalization and also the spread of digital content, English is being favoured. We need to make sure that French and English are much more at an equal footing at this point, Joly said in an interview Thursday.

French is the first language of eight million Canadians and their preoccupation is that French can continue to thrive in our country for the next 50 years, she said, adding that the same rights must be afforded to the English minority in Quebec.

The Liberal government has published its sweeping language reforms and will form a committee that will have 60 days to study their implementation. The Liberals then promise to bring forward the necessary legislative amendments.

In order to save you from having to go through the hyper-bureaucratic document yourself, the National Posts Christopher Nardi has broken it down into five main proposals.

More French immersion teachers

Use of French has deteriorated in Canada. The decrease of the demographic weight of Francophones is a trend that continues. The use of French at work and at home has also declined in recent years, including in Quebec, reads the proposal document.

French is a minority language in this country, and the Government of Canada recognizes the need to intervene vigorously to counter and remedy its decline.

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One of the key ways to do that, Joly says, is to address the deep and consistent shortage of francophone immersion teachers across the country, which in turns limits the availability of French education.

The document proposes two main solutions: increasing the number of training programs for future French teachers, as well as creating a fast-track immigration program focused on recruiting francophone teachers.

Too many parents across the country, are waiting in line or are participating in lottery systems in order to register their kids for French immersion. That is unacceptable, Joly said.

Bilingual Supreme Court judges

After years of fervent debate on the topic, Supreme Court judges should be functionally bilingual, the Trudeau government has decided.

Joly says she wants to remove the section of the Official Languages Act that exempts judges from the countrys highest court from having to understand both languages without an interpreter.

Lets all be clear here: if youre a judge in a superior court across the country, you have access to free French classes. So if you want to become bilingual, you can actually become bilingual if thats a priority for you because you want to become a Supreme Court justice, Joly said.

Increasing bilingualism within the public service

Though many management positions in the federal public service require candidates to be completely bilingual, the reality is that that isnt always the case in practice.

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So, Joly wants to review the standards under which bureaucrats are tested for bilingualism to ensure that theory meets reality going forward in French or bilingual regions, all the while improving second language training.

We need to make sure that people are able to speak both official languages when theyre in a position of power within the federal government, Joly said.

Mandatory French services for employees of federally regulated companies

For the francophones amongst the 815,000 Canadians who are employed in private businesses subject to federal jurisdiction, speaking French at work isnt always easy, the government says.

Thus, Joly proposes that the government oblige employers in Quebec and other regions with a strong francophone presence (which are not defined) to: communicate with workers in both official languages; ensure their workers have the right to work in French; and prohibit discrimination against an employee simply because they only speak French.

She would also give the Commissioner of Official Languages increased powers to better enforce compliance of the Official Languages Act.

Protecting CBC/Radio-Canadas services in underserved areas

The government wants to strengthen CBC/Radio-Canada as a cultural institution, recognize and protect the public broadcasters role in the promotion of both official languages and ensure that CBC/Radio-Canada implements measures that enhance the vitality of official language minority communities.

What does any of that mean? The minister could not detail how those services were to be protected, or whom they were being protected from: programing decisions made by CBC brass, or potential funding cuts from Parliament?

When services are cut in places around the country, that has an impact on the ability of minorities to have access to news and content from their own region, which in turn has an impact on the vitality of their community, on the strength of their community and on the future of their community, Joly said.

Email: cnardi@postmedia.com | Twitter: ChrisGNardi

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Liberals' proposed language reforms seek 'equality' of English and French in Canada - National Post