Crime control , NOT gun control.......... YES!

Toronto Star: Leaders unite against gun criminals
Date: Nov 23, 2006 8:48 AM
PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star
DATE: 2006.11.23
EDITION: MET
SECTION: News
PAGE: A01
BYLINE: Robert Benzie Jim Byers
SOURCE: Toronto Star
WORD COUNT: 517

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Leaders unite against gun criminals

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor David
Miller will today unveil plans to make it harder for those accused of
gun crimes to get back on the street, the Toronto Star has learned.

The three men, who have never shared a stage together, will meet at
Toronto's Sheraton Centre Hotel to announce ambitious measures targeting
gun criminals not far from where teenager Jane Creba was shot to death
on Yonge St. last Boxing Day.

Sources say Harper will confirm his support for "reverse onus" bail
conditions, which would require accused gun criminals to demonstrate why
they should be released.

The Prime Minister is also expected to repeat his call for mandatory
minimum sentences of up to 10 years on gun-toting criminals, which his
minority government has so far failed to get passed into law.

After Creba, 15, was killed during a gang shootout, McGuinty, Miller and
then-prime minister Paul Martin agreed that enough was enough on gun
crime.

In a Dec. 31 conference call, in the middle of the federal election
campaign, the three decided that imposing reverse onus conditions, which
could face a Charter of Rights challenge, were necessary to further
empower the courts to protect the public from gun violence.

"The Canadian way of life and those proud traditions of safety and
security are today threatened by a rising tide of drugs, gangs and
guns," Harper said on Jan. 5.

To that end, he and federal Attorney General Vic Toews have been urging
mandatory minimum prison sentences ranging from five to 10 years and
five years minimum incarceration - up from one year now - for using a
firearm in a crime.

More serious offences such as attempted murder using a gun, currently
subject to a four-year minimum sentence, would mean 10 years behind
bars.

As well, the Tories would like to strengthen the Youth Criminal Justice
Act to make it easier to transfer those as young as 14 to adult court,
where penalties are more harsh.

At city hall, Miller, who was re-elected in a landslide 10 days ago, has
also been a champion of more punitive treatment of criminals.

On Oct. 5, the mayor unveiled his crime strategy, one of the key planks
of which was a pledge to push for bail to be denied for accused who are
charged with committing offences while with a gun.

McGuinty, too, has been motivated to act.

"Only severe penalties can clearly convey the gravity of gun- related
crimes and our society's intolerance for them," the premier said after
the Creba shooting.

He wants the Criminal Code of Canada amended in order to ban handguns
and impose four-year mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes,
including illegal possession of a firearm.

The premier also wants new Criminal Code offences with mandatory minimum
sentences "for robbery with the intent to steal a gun and for breaking
and entering with the intent to steal a gun."

Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, who is to testify this morning
at the touring federal justice committee hearings on mandatory minimum
sentences for firearms crimes, has been leading the charge at Queen's
Park.

"Public confidence in our justice system plummets when someone accused
of a gun crime is back out on the streets the next day," Bryant wrote in
the Star in February.

"We need a presumption against the granting of bail for gun crimes. We
have a reverse onus for other crimes, such as drug trafficking. It is
time to do the same for gun crimes."

Four men are facing murder charges in the death of Creba. Six other
bystanders were injured .




The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !