Tom Brodbeck exposes Winnipeg MP Pat Martin's total flip-flop regarding Bill C-9 which would ban conditional sentences for serious crimes.
Yesterday, Tom ran a column exposing Martin's apparent lack of conviction. Originally, Pat Martin said he would support the bill but last week he voted in favour of watering it down.
Today Tom has a follow-up item about how Pat Martin emailed him to explain his side of the story.
It seems he has recently been "convinced" by his NDP justice critic that Justice Minister Vic Toews’ bill takes too much power away from judges.
Too bad.
Tom makes a good case why the NDP's reasoning is erroneous:
That’s where MPs such as Martin have been duped.
Under the original drafting of Toews’ bill, judges would still have plenty of discretion to give offenders non-jail sentences for crimes where a conditional sentence was no longer available.
Judges could still hand out non-jail penalties like suspended sentences, probation and fines for offences they believed didn’t warrant jail time.
Martin is in the difficult spot of wanting to please his constituents who want more protection from crime, and yet he must toady to the party line.
Another example of democracy gone sour.
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H/T to Jack's Newswatch, BTW.
Jack's is one awesome blog. If you only have limited time each day to check the news, I would highly recommend going there. (And just because he featured a post of mine the other day has absolutely nothing to do with it).
4 comments:
yet he must toady to the party line.
how rich. former conservative garth turner knows all too well the perils of free-thinking under a conservative government...
Jeff, you've got a point. I guess the only way to avoid it is to go independent.
The thing is though that in some issues the NDP forces party solidarity whereas the Liberals and Conservatives often allow free votes, such as votes on so-called moral issues.
DBT - Yes, on the whole that's true. And it's not just the Dippers trying to gut the 'tough on crime' bill either.
Remind me again how the crime rate soared under the Liberals over the last decade… Oh, right… never mind. IT DIDN’T! All your “tough on crime” bleating is just political gamesmanship.
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