Column: U.S. crime rate is no match for Canada

Column: U.S. crime rate is no match for Canada
Date: Jan 14, 2006 10:52 PM
PUBLICATION: New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal
DATE: 2006.01.14
PAGE: A9
SECTION: Opinion

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U.S. crime rate is no match for Canada

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In Tuesday's debate all the other leaders echoed Stephen Harper's "get
tough on crime" line, although the Liberals haven't got tough during 13
years in power and both Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe seem doubtful
that crime can be successfully fought unless poverty is eliminated.

Reluctant as many Canadians may be to concede it, the Americans have a
lesson for us on this issue. In its 2006 edition of Pocket World in
Figures, The Economist reports that Canada's crime rate is nearly double
that of the United States, 8,025 compared to 4,119 per 100,000
population.

What? We nice Canucks are more crime-prone than those obstreperous
Yanks? Impossible! Regrettably, it's true.

A major reason is that the United States keeps convicts in jail or
penitentiary much longer than Canada usually does. Here sentences are
light for many crimes and most of our convicts are paroled after serving
one-third of their sentences. In an absurd New Brunswick case four years
ago a smuggler lied, got caught with undeclared goods in his truck, and
was twice acquitted by judges on the ground that - under our sacred
Charter of Rights - the Canada Customs officer had no cause to doubt his
truthfulness!

The U.S. had the world's highest proportion of its people in prison -
714 per 100,000 population - in the latest year for which figures are
available. Russia was second with 532 prisoners per 100,000 population.
Canada's figure was 103 in 2001.

The U.S. has slightly more than two million people locked up. With
approximately one-ninth of the American population, Canada's
proportionate prison population would exceed 200,000. Our actual figure
in 2001 was about 32, 000.

When criminals are in prison, they can't smuggle drugs, burgle homes,
rob stores, steal cars or shoot cops or innocent bystanders. Have you
got that now, Paul, Jack and Gilles?

Mr. Martin keeps promising to ban handguns, ignoring the fact that
civilian ownership has been limited to such harmless uses as collection
and target shooting for the past 72 years. That hasn't stopped criminals
from getting hold of them, although it may help to explain the much
lower rate of gunshot crimes in Canada than in the U.S. Perversely, the
knowledge that few households contain handguns may promote the much
higher rate of property crimes in this country.

Another probable cause of Canada's shockingly higher total crime rate:
fewer cops on the beat. The U.S. has 243 policemen per 100,000 people.
Canada has 182. The Tories promise more of them.

ROBERT NIELSEN
Wilmot