Crime wave? What crime wave?

Given that statistics now put the crime rate in Canada at its lowest since 1973, with homicides at the lowest rate since 1966, can someone explain why the senator for Nunavut stood in my driveway just before the elections trying to suggest that only the Harper government could quell the crime wave sweeping our country?

A cynical person might conclude that our re-elected “fearless leaders” were well aware of the stats and chose to ignore them to enforce the perception that the law and order party was so effective in battling crime when, in reality, all they had to do to show a decrease was… nothing.

The cost of doing nothing? Figures in the annual Report on Plans and Priorities from the Correctional Service of Canada indicate that our federal corrections system will cost $2.98 billion in 2011-12, an 80 per cent increase from fiscal year 2006-07, when the Conservatives came to power.

The Correctional Service is preparing for an increase of 4,500 new inmates in Canadian penitentiaries. If crime is slumping so dramatically here, where are these inmates coming from? Mexico? Guantanamo?

On a related matter, has anyone heard if the Harper government will launch an inquiry into the practice of unelected Senators campaigning for their party’s candidates here in Nunavut while continuing to collect their salaries from Ottawa?

Philip Marsh
Iqaluit

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