Stop Harper's crime bill

Note: This page contains outdated content and may not appear correctly.
Please Click Here to find recent news, events and information from CUPE Ontario.

Dear friends across Canada,

In days, Harper will try to push through a crime law that could drastically raise our taxes or result in social program cuts — but we can call on all provinces to join Quebec and Ontario in refusing to pay for a useless law and denounce this backwards legislation. Click below to join in:

In days, Harper will try to push through a crime law that could drastically raise our taxes and dole out harsher punishments for pot smokers than pedophiles — but Quebec and Ontario have refused to pay for the bad law. Together, we can stand with them and call on every province to ditch the crime bill and protect Canadians from useless expenses.

Crime rates in Canada have been falling steadily for over a decade yet Harper insists on spending our money to lock up our most vulnerable citizens like youth and aboriginals. Spending billions on bad crime laws means that our taxes will rise or valuable social programs like Employment Insurance will be cut. Quebec and Ontario have already said they won’t pay and now we can sign this petition telling our Premiers to join them in protecting us from this bill.

Texas blew billions on a crime fighting system that didn’t work and now Harper wants to do the same in Canada — but we can still stop him. Let’s ditch the crime bill by signing this petition calling on our Premiers to stand with Quebec, Ontario and Canadian taxpayers. Click below to be heard and forward to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_harpers_cruel_crime_bill/?vl

The total crime rate for serious offences fell by 19% between 2000 and 2010. The crime severity rate has fallen 6% since 1998, which means that Canadians commit fewer violent crimes like murders, attempted murders and serious assaults. There are also fewer brake-ins, car thefts, robberies and drunk driving charges — still Harper wants to spend massive amounts of our money locking up more Canadians. Creating mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana smokers and putting kids who make mistakes behind bars is not the way to make Canada a better place. Join the call to show Harper that we’d rather invest in social programs that really help Canadians.

Virtually all major authorities have questioned this approach to stopping crime: Texas, Ontario and Quebec, the Canadian Bar Association, Academics, think tanks, even a Conservative Senator. We’ve seen this approach fail in multiple US states but Harper remains dead-set on wasting our money on a law that will create more criminals.

By signing this petition we can, together, tell Harper that we don’t want a tax hike for a bad law. Click here to call on our Premiers to ditch the crime bill:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_harpers_cruel_crime_bill/?vl

Let’s make our voices heard and ensure our government doesn’t waste our money on laws that we don’t need and that don’t work.

With hope,

Emma, Ari, Ricken, Laryn and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources

Texas conservatives reject Harper’s crime plan
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/17/pol-vp-milewski-texas-crime.html

Quebec balks at Ottawa’s law-and-order agenda
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-refuses-to-pay-costs-of-federal-crime-bill/article2221192/

Quebec will refuse to pay for omnibus crime bill
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/11/01/pol-omnibus-crime-bill.html

The true costs of ‘truth in sentencing’
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-true-costs-of-truth-in-sentencing/article1621898/

Crime bill penalizes logic
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1450689>http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1450689

Kevin Libin: Provinces will pay dearly for Tory crime bill
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/11/04/kevin-libin-provinces-will-pay-dearly-for-tory-crime-bill/

NDP blasts dismal response rate as Tories cut EI call centres
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/ndp-blasts-dismal-response-rate-as-tories-cut-ei-call-centres/article2214647/