Your Anti-Pathetic Government and You

If every level of government comes down on the side of those who would commit the worst sorts of crimes against people, it's safe to conclude that they don't care about you.

But, then again, these people were voted in regularly, so ... :

Don’t expect anyone to be held accountable for the latest debacle in Ottawa as Marco Mendicino isn’t resigning and he said he won’t fire anyone either. Justin Trudeau’s public safety minister has been under fire for weeks over his handling of Paul Bernardo’s transfer and of China’s interference in Canada.

(Sidebar: more here.)

Seems that Mendicino and his department have told Canadians a lot of things that just aren’t true as he’s been defending the government, but that’s OK because no one will lose their jobs. Seems like being a Liberal means never having to take responsibility.

Conservative MP Blaine Calkins laid out a number of reasons why Mendicino should resign as the minister appeared before a Commons committee on Thursday morning. He pointed to Mendicino not knowing about China’s targeting of sitting MPs, his declaration that China’s alleged secret police stations were all closed when they weren’t, his claim that law enforcement asked for the Emergencies Act to end the convoy (which wasn’t true), his disastrous handling of the government’s gun legislation and now Bernardo’s transfer.

“Will he do the honourable thing and resign right here and right now?” Calkins asked.

“I am focused on one thing and one thing only and that is doing my job to protect the safety and security of Canadians,” Mendicino said.

Mendicino dismissed Calkins’ statement as being riddled with errors and not worthy of a response, but it is a fact that Mendicino’s record is awful and his constant refrain of late that he simply didn’t know doesn’t hold water. Does anyone really believe that he’s the last to know about important files in his department, such as Bernardo’s transfer or China’s interference?

Well, yes, because incompetence is the go-to excuse for every Liberal.

No one seems to get memos.

And people seem to be fine with it because not only will these chair-moisteners never apologise or resign, they will never be voted out, either.

Such are the perks of an unaccountable and even absent government.

**

The Edmonton Police Service did an analysis that looked at offences by criminals on bail in the years before C-75 and the years after.

In 2017, Edmonton police tracked 2,880 people who had been arrested and then released on bail or ordered to attend court. In the following three years, 1,784 of them committed another 12,743 crimes, including three homicides.

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In 2020, Edmonton police tracked 3,647 similar individuals and found that 2,482 of them went on to commit another 19,186 crimes in the following three years. This time there were 26 homicides.

In Toronto in 2022, there were 44 deaths by shooting with 24 of the alleged killers already out on bail, according to Conservative numbers.

The story has been the same across the country. But it was the death in December of Ontario Provincial Police Const. Greg Pierzchala that really put a focus on the issue of repeat offenders out on bail.

**

Kirkland Russell of Chilliwack, B.C., had over 50 convictions when he fatally stabbed Doug Presseau, who had stepped in to help Russell’s girlfriend as he was attacking her. Russell received a sentence of eight years for the 2017 murder.

“When you have that many convictions, I don’t understand how our justice system can allow him to be out walking the streets. My son should never have been murdered,” Presseau’s mother told Gunn in “Canada Is Dying.”

**

Noah Schwartz, assistant political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley and the letter’s author, told the National Post he’s hoping to convince senators to make some “fairly substantial” amendments to C-21 to refocus the bill toward public safety.

“The bill, as it stands, doesn’t really address major public safety concerns,” he said.

“There are parts of it that are wasteful, and that are actually harmful to some of the communities in Canada, especially in rural and remote areas.”

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The letter maintains that C-21, which on Tuesday passed second reading in the Senate, won’t meaningfully address root causes of gun violence, or halt illegal firearms streaming into Canada from the United States.

Instead of reducing crime, the letter reads, the bill will “punish hundreds of thousands of Canadian hunters, farmers, trappers, collectors, and sport shooters,” many of whom are Indigenous.

Both policy experts and law enforcement officials agree Canada’s gun crime epidemic is fuelled by prohibited weapons smuggled into this country from the United States, and not licensed Canadian gun owners or their firearms. 

Last February, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw told the public safety committee that, of those that investigators could trace, roughly 86 per cent of crime guns in his city were sourced to gun smugglers. 

**

I wouldn't cheer.

You just put a bull's eye on the backs of every pregnant woman out there:

It is not the first time Cathay Wagantall has sponsored a private member’s bill in the House of Commons which more or less gives legal recognition to a fetus — but her party unanimously rushed to support her new bill, C-311, arguing that it is strictly about public safety.

The bill was rejected at second reading at 113-205 votes, sparking a round of cheers and applause.

The Violence Against Pregnant Women Act seeks to amend the Criminal Code to add aggravating circumstances that an offender “abused a person whom the offender knew to be pregnant” or that “the offense caused physical or emotional harm to a pregnant victim.”

“Nowhere in this legislation is there any reference to the unborn or reproductive issues. Making this debate about something other than protecting women is unfair and uncaring,” said Conservative whip Kerry-Lynne Findlay during a debate on Tuesday evening.

Imagine willing to throw people in harm's way so that one will never have to even skirt an issue.

That is how this government values people.