"Many Canadians - especially in the Toronto area - strongly support a mandatory 10-year sentence for anyone committing a crime with a lethal weapon, be it a gun, knife, club, etc. "
CRIOME CONTROL, NOT GUN CONTROL
--------------------------PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun
DATE: 2004.02.27
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial/Opinion
PAGE: 15
BYLINE: BOB MACDONALD
COLUMN: Straight Talk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BRING IT ON! READERS BACK CALL FOR HARD TIME FOR GUN CRIME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Canadians - especially in the Toronto area - strongly support a mandatory 10-year sentence for anyone committing a crime with a lethal weapon, be it a gun, knife, club, etc.
And they just as strongly back reinstatement of capital punishment for first-degree murder.
No, that's not the findings of some pricey polling company.
It's the overwhelming recommendations contained in a blizzard of e-mails and phone calls I received in response to my Wednesday column. More than 100 e-mails and dozens of phone calls came roaring in.
In Wednesday's Sun, I said we have to stop pussyfooting around. We should impose both measures in a no-nonsense fight against the increasing threat of violent crime and murders.
I cited four murders last weekend. Two were the savage knifing deaths in a robbery of a travel agent and an innocent customer-tourist, Suzette Augustin, mother of an 8-year old.
Apparently she was slashed to death so that there'd be no eyewitnesses. With no death penalty in Canada, killing someone is considered no big deal to a criminal.
Her husband, who came from St. Lucia to take home her body, said his friends at home were wondering if Canada was becoming some kind of "Third World country" with its increasing violent crime.
"This country has to wake up," wrote reader Stan Dziama.
"I fully support capital punishment, and also the 10-year mandatory sentence for weapon possession in committing a crime," he said. "I shudder to think what the outcome could have been if Augustin had her 8-year-old with her at the time."
"This wonderful country of ours is going straight to Hell," wrote Dorothy Thompson, of Oshawa, as she supported both the mandatory sentence and capital punishment.
"Let's start with our deplorable judicial system, and get those appointed judges out of our courts. They are the downfall of society," she added.
"Great column Bob, and I agree with you 100%. We need tougher laws, no plea bargains and the death penalty," wrote Judy McLean, of Toronto.
Noted reader Helen Thomas: "In Australia, if you are caught with a gun, you automatically are sentenced to 10 years. If you commit a crime with that gun, you receive 25 years. That is on top of your sentence."
Some called for a national referendum to reinstate capital punishment because they were suspicious that so-called free votes on the matter in Parliament could be rigged.
Others warned that as existing laws are weakened by soft judges and plea-bargaining lawyers, increasingly threatened citizens will take things into their own hands.
Wrote Jeff Keibel of Scarborough: "I play by the rules. I don't even speed. If I become a victim, then I am all but forgotten by the system as the criminal watches satellite TV in his cell.
"That's the making of a vigilante culture. People will seek out justice their own way if government fails them."
Ray Presland of Toronto supports capital punishment, but he doubted it could be reinstated as long as the federal government is run by "those left-wing bleeding hearts like the Liberals."
"In Canada, the problem lies with our activist judges over-exercising their power and with our cowardly hold-on-to-power-at-all-cost scandalous Liberal politicians relinquishing theirs for expendience," said Brian Blick, of Calgary.
"My God, we need a change in government," he contended.
"It is well past time that we gave our police some teeth to really help them to reverse this growing trend toward violent crime," said Louise Mewhinney, of Whitby.
"It is shameful that we ask them to put their lives on the line for us and then take away any true punishment for crimes committed with no respect or regard for human life."
So went the responses, with almost no one disagreeing.
Conclusion: Canadians - especially in our Toronto area - are increasingly concerned and angry about our weak criminal justice system. They want action and, as one suggested, the only hope he saw was the electon of a Stephen Harper-led new Conservative party.
So, as Bill Sholdice, of Mississauga, declared in backing the mandatory weapons sentence and capital punishment: "BRING IT ON!!!!!!"
CRIOME CONTROL, NOT GUN CONTROL
--------------------------PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun
DATE: 2004.02.27
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Editorial/Opinion
PAGE: 15
BYLINE: BOB MACDONALD
COLUMN: Straight Talk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BRING IT ON! READERS BACK CALL FOR HARD TIME FOR GUN CRIME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Canadians - especially in the Toronto area - strongly support a mandatory 10-year sentence for anyone committing a crime with a lethal weapon, be it a gun, knife, club, etc.
And they just as strongly back reinstatement of capital punishment for first-degree murder.
No, that's not the findings of some pricey polling company.
It's the overwhelming recommendations contained in a blizzard of e-mails and phone calls I received in response to my Wednesday column. More than 100 e-mails and dozens of phone calls came roaring in.
In Wednesday's Sun, I said we have to stop pussyfooting around. We should impose both measures in a no-nonsense fight against the increasing threat of violent crime and murders.
I cited four murders last weekend. Two were the savage knifing deaths in a robbery of a travel agent and an innocent customer-tourist, Suzette Augustin, mother of an 8-year old.
Apparently she was slashed to death so that there'd be no eyewitnesses. With no death penalty in Canada, killing someone is considered no big deal to a criminal.
Her husband, who came from St. Lucia to take home her body, said his friends at home were wondering if Canada was becoming some kind of "Third World country" with its increasing violent crime.
"This country has to wake up," wrote reader Stan Dziama.
"I fully support capital punishment, and also the 10-year mandatory sentence for weapon possession in committing a crime," he said. "I shudder to think what the outcome could have been if Augustin had her 8-year-old with her at the time."
"This wonderful country of ours is going straight to Hell," wrote Dorothy Thompson, of Oshawa, as she supported both the mandatory sentence and capital punishment.
"Let's start with our deplorable judicial system, and get those appointed judges out of our courts. They are the downfall of society," she added.
"Great column Bob, and I agree with you 100%. We need tougher laws, no plea bargains and the death penalty," wrote Judy McLean, of Toronto.
Noted reader Helen Thomas: "In Australia, if you are caught with a gun, you automatically are sentenced to 10 years. If you commit a crime with that gun, you receive 25 years. That is on top of your sentence."
Some called for a national referendum to reinstate capital punishment because they were suspicious that so-called free votes on the matter in Parliament could be rigged.
Others warned that as existing laws are weakened by soft judges and plea-bargaining lawyers, increasingly threatened citizens will take things into their own hands.
Wrote Jeff Keibel of Scarborough: "I play by the rules. I don't even speed. If I become a victim, then I am all but forgotten by the system as the criminal watches satellite TV in his cell.
"That's the making of a vigilante culture. People will seek out justice their own way if government fails them."
Ray Presland of Toronto supports capital punishment, but he doubted it could be reinstated as long as the federal government is run by "those left-wing bleeding hearts like the Liberals."
"In Canada, the problem lies with our activist judges over-exercising their power and with our cowardly hold-on-to-power-at-all-cost scandalous Liberal politicians relinquishing theirs for expendience," said Brian Blick, of Calgary.
"My God, we need a change in government," he contended.
"It is well past time that we gave our police some teeth to really help them to reverse this growing trend toward violent crime," said Louise Mewhinney, of Whitby.
"It is shameful that we ask them to put their lives on the line for us and then take away any true punishment for crimes committed with no respect or regard for human life."
So went the responses, with almost no one disagreeing.
Conclusion: Canadians - especially in our Toronto area - are increasingly concerned and angry about our weak criminal justice system. They want action and, as one suggested, the only hope he saw was the electon of a Stephen Harper-led new Conservative party.
So, as Bill Sholdice, of Mississauga, declared in backing the mandatory weapons sentence and capital punishment: "BRING IT ON!!!!!!"