The Ministry of the Redundant Moustache

By Bruce Clark

Election campaigning or as I like to call it, the season of lies, has thankfully come to an end. Manitobans will no longer suffer the most insipid triumvirate to address the public since Kukla, Fran and Ollie were on the air.

Greg Selinger, Hugh McFadyen, and the dullard who led the liberals (whose name I refuse to type out for fear of being overwhelmed with boredom), repeating the same inescapable clichés was like a Three Stooges episode without the intellectual discourse.  One would be hard pressed to find a more screaming example of a Hobson’s choice.

Since the catalyst for political change is usually the economy – stupid – and Manitoba is riding a wave of economic certainty, McFadyen resorted to the age-old tactic of fear mongering to gain political purchase. He droned on about the deadly streets of gang-ridden Winnipeg as if anyone needs reminding of its well-earned reputation for being the most violent city in the country.

While the candidates continued their relatively tame assaults on one another, something happened that helped illustrate the cynicism and abject ineffectiveness inherent in the political system when it comes to addressing social ills, particularly crime.

An Air Canada bulletin informing pilots and flight crews they’d no longer be lodging in downtown Winnipeg was made public. Airline officials claimed a security assessment by the Winnipeg Police Service had determined an increase in public drunkenness created a danger that jeopardized employee safety. The embarrassed airline was forced to apologize for their politically incorrect assertion that the problem was primarily due to “displaced rural Manitobans” (read Aboriginals) that would go away once they moved back to their reserves.

Selinger, who tiptoed around Air Canada’s faux pas, played it safe by advising the airline to “rethink its policy.” McFadyen tried using the situation as an example of the NDP’s failure to fight crime but couldn’t make much political hay of it because of the issue’s racial sensitivity.

Winnipeg’s unctuous mayor, Sam Katz, became indignant that someone other than himself could label Winnipeg “dangerous.” Given Katz’s platform in the last mayoral election of adding more police to make the streets safer, his disingenuous comments about Air Canada revealed his contempt for his constituents and his seemingly poor short-term memory. (Note to Sammy: my elderly aunt uses Post-it notes to remind her to turn off the stove. You may want to employ a similar method to avoid contradicting yourself in the future.)

Aboriginal chiefs decried Air Canada’s statement as racist and have vowed to boycott the airline for implying that the people they govern could possibly have addiction problems.  The chiefs’ indignation is another indication that politicians of all stripes play to the emotions of their people, rather than risk their sinecures by addressing any serious criticism or reality.

These insincere political positions by civic, provincial, Aboriginal and federal leaders prevent any meaningful progress when it comes to crime prevention. Hyperbolic governments play to the emotional part of the human brain by promising vengeance and retribution on violent offenders rather than take an intelligent look at a complex problem.  Political leaders unwilling to take a new approach embrace cynical well-worn policies that have proven time and time again to be utterly ineffective.

Harper’s federal government expects to pass the Safe Streets and Community Act that they introduced into parliament in September. Conservative uber-hypocrite and Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews has been vague on cost and efficacy but maintains that there are violent criminals on the streets who need to be locked up. (For those who don’t closely follow the career of the former Minister of Family Values and Justice, Toews knocked up his young mistress — to the chagrin of his wife of thirty-two years — not long after claiming gay marriage was a threat to the institution.)

Proposals of the SSCA include changes to the Young Offenders Act that will see lengthy prison sentences for juveniles for not only murder, but auto theft, break and entry and other significant offenses like “theft over $5,000.” Toews, whose countenance looks like his shoes are too tight, wants to lower the age of criminal responsibility from twelve to ten years of age and have the ability to try juveniles in adult court when warranted by the crime.

These changes are politically motivated, cynical maneuvers designed to assuage public disgust over the epidemic of youth violence. Gang activity has increased over the years and inner-city youth with little supervision and even less hope turn to gangs and crime.  Car theft, robbery, assault and murder are all too common in the blighted areas of Winnipeg.

There have been thirty-two murders in the city so far this year, most of them committed in the core area. No fewer than eleven kids—some as young as fourteen—have been charged with murder, and the vast majority of homicide and violent crimes involve Aboriginals as the perpetrators and the victims: blowback from decades of injustice.

Stabbings are an everyday occurrence and robberies are often committed by young offenders. (A ten and thirteen-year-old boy were arrested for armed robbery the week before last.)  The Winnipeg Police Service assesses the situation: “we still see “Turf” wars and murders and other associated crimes in the battle for profits in the drug industry.”

Knowing the Young Offenders Act insulates juveniles from adult sentencing, gangs employ kids to do the heavy lifting. Police arrest and re-arrest the same juvenile culprits only to see them back on the streets before the paperwork’s been submitted.

The frustration felt by the Winnipeg Police Service is echoed in a statement from the WPS drug unit or “green team” as they have inanely dubbed themselves.

For any “sentence structure” to be effective as a deterrent against any crime it must be administered appropriately. This means that the Court system actually has to “hand down” the sentence to the offender. Such is the example with the Crime of Break & Enter to a Dwelling House, where the punishment is a Life Sentence. Yet we do not see this sentence being handed out.

A life sentence for a B and E is a little harsh but it confirms my suspicion that the WPS is under the illusion that locking people up and tossing away the key will deter crime. If this was the case, the United States could usurp the title of “Happiest Place on Earth” from Disneyland.  US incarceration rates are the highest in the world (seven times higher than Canada’s) and employ ineffective draconian punishments including the death penalty and the “three strikes” law that forces judges to hand out harsh sentences for minor offences.  (There are many men serving life without parole because they shoplifted. One man stole a slice of pizza, another a Lion King video.)

Incarceration rates have skyrocketed in the US largely due to one of the biggest law enforcement charades since prohibition: the War on Drugs. This idiotic scheme that has thrived in the US for over thirty years has done nothing to reduce criminal activity. Even with the abysmal failure of US criminal policy staring them right in the face, Canada’s Conservative government is doggedly following in the staggering footsteps of American lawmakers. Doubling penalties for marijuana possession and instituting minimum sentences will hamstring judges everywhere.

I asked the WPS if legalizing marijuana would free up police to concentrate efforts on more serious crimes.

Question: If we examine the current ‘Murder Trend’ in the Mexican drug war, we see that thousands of people are being murdered each year over the control of the drug industry that is primarily based on marijuana. Do we consider these thousands of murders to be serious? Is it because the Mexican border is so far away that it does not affect Canadians?

Answer: Legalization of Marijuana would still require Police to enforce other aspects associated with [it]. Such is the case with liquor laws. Even though society enjoys the legalization after the prohibition laws experience, there are still problems that exist. We have “Drunk Driving” Assaults, Thefts, other associated crimes, as well as Provincial Statutes and Regulations.

The WPS’ statement reflects the circular cause and consequence argument that stymies meaningful discussion. It is because marijuana is illegal that its value increases and creates a lucrative market. There will always be a drug trade, no matter what is illegal and what isn’t, but people in possession of pot or growing their own plants shouldn’t be put in jail for fourteen years. We don’t arrest people for buying a case of beer, but because of an arbitrary decision that the drug found in marijuana is taboo, billions of dollars are needlessly spent on law enforcement and incarceration. Pierre Trudeau said the government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation. They should stay out of its gardens too.

So, why is a drug (alcohol) once outlawed by a puritanical government pressured by a temperance movement made up of women who were (rightly) tired of being pummeled by their drunken husbands legal, while marijuana isn’t?  Thousands of people die every year of alcohol related accidents and disease. Drunk driving, fist fighting, liver disease or just being bad at the game of “caps” kills scores while the detrimental effect of pot is an inordinate number of forty-year-olds living in their parents’ basements.

The answer can be found in an unintentionally revealing statement made by Vic Toews. When asked about the changes reflected in the Safe Streets and Community act he said, “…the new laws reflect the moral values of the party.”

Harper’s government would rather enact laws based on their ideology than reason, even though their ideology is frighteningly similar to that of the American, right wing conservative.  Not surprising given that Harper is an evangelical Christian himself.

Marijuana was first criminalized in the United States shortly after prohibition when thousands of DEA agents had nothing to do after alcohol was re-legalized.  Spurious testimonies from doctors claiming pot makes you insane bolstered arguments to ban the substance.  In Canada, cannabis was added to the restricted list in 1923.

Emily Murphy, a women’s rights activist, magistrate and contemporary of Nellie McClung wrote a book called The Black Candle in which she claimed the only way out of a marijuana addiction was insanity, death or abandonment.

We now know that these hysterical claims are categorically false and that marijuana has beneficial medicinal uses.   It seems though that the likes of Vic Toews and Stevie Harper still believe the hilariously misguided lessons of Reefer Madness.

While there are a few good changes to the act (nobody can reasonably argue against longer sentences for violent offenders or trying to protect vulnerable immigrants) intensifying the criminality of marijuana possession, raising minimum sentences and putting juveniles in adult correctional facilities will not only cost billions, it will be completely ineffective in reducing crime.

The government wants to legislate morality, which is impossible, and they want to do it at the further expense of those already hanging onto the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

The outlawing of alcohol and drugs has always been aimed at the “dangerous classes,” poor, marginalized citizens. Gin was outlawed in nineteenth century England but whiskey was legal because poor people drank gin. Crack cocaine, much cheaper than the powdered version, carries sentences exponentially higher since poor black men are more likely to use crack.

The disenfranchised always pay the highest price. The population of Manitoba jails is predominately Aboriginal. Most of the young offenders Vic Toews wants to lock up are Aboriginal.

With a majority Conservative government, these changes to the criminal code of Canada are a fait accompli. They will be implemented and we will see more and more poor kids from Winnipeg’s inner city locked up for a hypocritical white, male ideology.

Toews and the other politicians understand who it is that will be affected most by these changes. Instead of holding ten-year-olds criminally responsible, and moving teenagers into adult courts, it is better for everyone to address the issue of why fourteen-year-olds are beating others to death with baseball bats.

To examine that complexity requires thoughtful assessment by intelligent, empathetic human beings without an agenda. It would also require political honesty – an oxymoron if I ever heard one.  With the exception of a few, politicians aren’t interested in making things better for the people. They are inextricably tethered to the interests that fill their wallets.

Political narcissism is the cancer that will continue to destroy the marginalized, voiceless human beings whose numbers swell in a growing inner city. The Weakerthans lyrics from “One Great City” say it much better than I can:

…up above us all,
leaning into sky
our golden business boy
will watch the north end die
and sing ‘i love this town’
then let his arching wrecking ball proclaim:
“i… hate… winnipeg.”