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Senate in no rush on crime bill

I don’t want to get my hopes up that the crime bill will be amended in favour of the pardon program’s current criteria but at least the Tory controlled senate is showing some retraint when it comes to passing the legislation. I don’t think the Conservatives had much choice in the matter. After trying to submit amendments that were rejected it would be provide anyone with a charter challenge strong evidence that the government had not thought the bill through thoroughly enough. Of course I am just speculating. Who really knows what the government is thinking on this one? It’s anyone’s guess.

For a more detailed read on the subject click the following link to the CBC website.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/12/07/pol-crime-senate.html

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anonymous / December 8, 2011

Hi Michael,

I’m not holding out much hope for amendments or delays either. If anything, the article and comments by the Tory Senate Leader reflects just how perverted the concept of ‘rush’ has become under the Harper Government.

In other words, not jamming through a 200+ page omnibus crime bill in less than 2 weeks is now seen as “no rush at all” — as if passing this by March or April is now “leisurely” — when in reality (at least the kind that I prefer to live in), passing a bill like this in anything less than a full calendar year is reckless and reprehensible.

You know, the more I think of what’s going on here, the more I keep coming back to an irksome central notion: if they weren’t called “pardons” in the first place, would this even be an issue for Canadians? I honestly have a hard time believing that it would. It’s the word ‘pardon’ that is screwing everything up! People don’t know what it means. It’s not actually a pardon at all. There’s nothing about forgiveness in getting a pardon — you only get one if you’ve completed your sentence 100%. It’s not as if a sentence is commuted or you get a ‘get out of jail free’ card like you do in the US.

Do you know what I mean?

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Michael Ashby / December 12, 2011

Hi Anon,

I know exactly what you mean. It is one of the reasons I support the measure to change the terminology to record suspension. We could even go as far as to call it an “employment restriction removal” since in my opinion a pardon is really just about getting a job and has nothing at all to do with forgiveness. You might be interested to know however that in French the correct term is “demande de réhabilitation”. However, the public is largely unaware of the term and prefers to use demande de pardon.

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Susan / December 19, 2011

In response to sending a letter to the Senate thru one of the on-line websites you promoted, I have received a letter from Art Eggleton that states ‘My Liberal colleagues and I will be voting against Bill C-10 when it is brought before the Senate.’

While I’m not getting my hopes up that this means the Bill will be stopped, should this promote a little glimmer of hope that it may be amended?

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Michael Ashby / December 19, 2011

Hi Susan,

There are two ways to look at the fate of this bill. One is that the Conservatives have a majority and therefore it will pass. The other is that there is an enormous amount of pressure to stop this bill, with even some Conservatives thinking it is poorly thought out, so it might just fail or at least get amended. So to answer your question, yes, there is a faint glimmer of hope. But in all honestly I think it will likely pass with a very small number of amendments included. We can only hope.

Happy holidays to you.
Michael

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Louis / February 11, 2012

Stumbled on your blog post through Digg. You know I will be signing up to your feed.

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