July 30, 2010

Crime Statistics Fact and Fiction

I recently read commentary which stated that as Canada's Public Safety Minister I am

"scrambling awkwardly" to figure out a response to Statistics Canada reporting a marginal drop in Canada's crime rate. While these soft-on-crime commentators have managed to find the dark lining in a silver cloud, the obvious conclusion is that if crime is going down, that’s a good thing.

Perhaps the low point in the commentary was the allegation that a statement on crime on my MP website was somehow misleading. My website simply states that communities are increasingly "under threat of gun, gang and drug violence".  For the residents of Manitoba, this is true. According to the Statistics Canada report, violent crime related to drugs, gangs and guns continues to rise in our province.

Increasingly larger numbers of Canadians are no longer reporting crimes to the police meaning statistics showing that the crime rate is falling are fundamentally flawed.

In one of the most informed commentary on the topic, Lorrie Goldstein states that members of the "hug-a-thug crowd” should actually read the statistics in context before trying to advance their arguments for throwing open the prison doors (Sun Media, October 22, 2009).

Goldstein points out that "the violent crime rate” in Canada in 2008 is 321 percent above what it was in 1962. In 1962 there were 221 violent crimes reported to police per 100,000 people while in 2008 the comparable figure is 932 per 100,000, more than a tripling in fewer that 50 years.

It’s clear that our government's tough on crime policies are seeing some initial success.  As reported by the Vancouver Sun recently, vigorous police enforcement as well as some of the new laws we have passed are having a significant impact in that city. Vancouver police describe the climate in the city as “night and day.”

Violent criminals associated with gangs in Vancouver are beginning to change their behaviour. They know bail is harder to get and the massive "time-served" discounts on sentences are no longer available.

As a result of the new bail provisions for crimes where criminals are using guns and the elimination of the two for one credit system, criminals are getting on with their trials or even entering guilty pleas because there is no advantage in trying to game the system.

Our government makes no apologies for putting the safety of Canadians first. It’s a position I have no problem explaining when I speak to ordinary Canadians. The only awkward scrambling I see on the political scene today is by those politicians who go home to their constituents after voting against common-sense crime initiatives when they are in Ottawa.