rob nicholson

By Ken MacQueen, Macleans

 

If hard criminals do soft time in Canada, as the federal Conservative government insists, then John Virgil Punko seems a poster boy for all that’s wrong with the judicial system. In police jargon, Punko was “a low-level mope”—a full-patch member of the Vancouver East End Hells Angels with a healthy dose of greed and a bad addiction to Percocet. Such vulnerabilities made him a useful target in 2003 when the RCMP launched E-Pandora, a $10-million sting operation aiming at netting the big fish in the East End Angels.

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By Michael McKiernan, Law Times

 

Lawyers took federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to task for his party’s tough-on-crime agenda during a question-and-answer session at the Canadian Bar Association’s annual conference in Niagara Falls, Ont., last week.

 

But a defiant Nicholson held firm throughout while insisting that harsher sentences and changes to the Criminal Code are necessary to maintain public confidence in the justice system.

 

Nicholson spearheaded the Truth in Sentencing Act, which ended two-for-one credit for pretrial detention. The government has also eliminated conditional sentences for crimes involving serious personal injuries and has vowed to continue the push to toughen up the Criminal Code in other areas. Read more »

By: Glenn Kauth, Law Times

 

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said lots of words but offered little substance during his question-and-answer session with lawyers at the Canadian Bar Association conference in his hometown of Niagara Falls, Ont., last week.

 

In typical fashion for a local MP, Nicholson praised the CBA’s choice of the tourist mecca for the annual event.

At the same time, we heard lots of generalities about what the government plans to do to address crime in Canada.

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Open Letters to Ministers & Public Officials

 

The Honourable Rob Nicholson

Minister of Justice

House of Commons

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

 

Dear Minister Nicholson,

 

I write to express my concern about your government’s recent announcement of regulatory changes to the Criminal Code, especially in regard to prostitution.

 

In 2007, the Parliamentary Sub-committee on Solicitation Laws, of which I was a member, heard from over 300 witnesses and examined available literature to come to the majority conclusion that current laws surrounding prostitution are harming women and men working in the sex trade.

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By: HARRIS MACLEOD, The Hill Times

 

The Parliamentary Budget Officer would prefer not to do any more studies into the costs of the Harper government's slate of law and order legislation, saying it's now up to Parliamentarians to demand that full cost estimates are provided for the rest of the proposed changes to the justice system.

 

Liberal Public Safety critic Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering, Ont.) asked Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page to analyse the costs of all the government's proposed justice legislation. To date, the PBO has only reported on the costs of Bill C-25, the so-called truth in sentencing act, a bill to limit credit given for time served in pre-sentencing custody.

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By Canadian Students For Sensible Drug Policy, Cannabis Culture

 

The 'Regulations Prescribing Certain Offences to be Serious Offences' came into effect July 13, 2010, and was publically enacted by the Federal Government early in August 2010.

 

Regulations, unlike legislation, do not need to be approved by Parliament. Regulations are the specifics of legislation; in this case it is what particular offences are included as a 'serious offence'. The Criminal Code sets out that the federal government has the power to include activities into the defintion of 'serious offences' without Parliamentary debate. These regulation changes were made to the Criminal Code and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

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Calgary Herald

 

While we agree with Treasury Board president Stockwell Day and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson that multi-billion-dollar investments in new prisons are needed to replace aging facilities, both will have to do better than quote questionable six-year-old crime victimization statistics to prove an "alarming rise" in unreported crimes is justification for more prisons.

 

The government insists the latest Statistics Canada figures showing that crime is down cannot be trusted. Day said unreported crime is rampant. "We're very concerned about the increase in the amount of unreported crimes that surveys clearly show are happening," Day said, without citing the source of the surveys.

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The StarPhoenix

 

According to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, the Conservative government doesn't govern based on the latest statistics.

 

Defending the Stephen Harper government's "get tough on crime" agenda Monday on the CBC Radio program, The Current, Mr. Nicholson said critics keep insisting: "You have to use the statistics and the measuring sticks we want. I say you can't do that."

 

His statement is much more illuminating than the ongoing controversy over the Tories' decision to make voluntary Canadians' responding to the long-form census. The data obtained from the previously mandatory responses had been used to glean a wide range of statistically valid information about Canadians.

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By: COREY LAROCQUE, Welland Tribune

 

NIAGARA FALLS — Canada's Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says he hopes the beefed-up security presence following him lately is a "short-term" measure, but the Niagara Falls MP wouldn't say much else about why he has a police escort tailing him.

 

"We're always concerned about issues of security," Nicholson said Monday, when asked about what appeared to be a plainclothes police officer travelling with him to a funding announcement in Niagara Falls.

 

A woman in a black suit and wearing dark sunglasses was with Nicholson when he arrived at the Bridge St. train station Monday to announce Ottawa will contribute $700,000 toward upgraded GO Train platforms.

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