Opponents of the Conservative government’s omnibus crime bill are joined at the hip with the Occupy movement since societal inequality underpins both how much people earn and how they are treated by the law, a Parliament Hill rally heard Saturday.
The crime bill “makes the most privileged of us in society more privileged” and criminalizes Canadians already living on the margins of society, Occupy Ottawa organizer Laura Farberman told a crowd of more than 100 people, including roughly a dozen evicted Occupiers, gathered in front of the Parliament buildings.
Bill C-10's changes would entrench the disproportionate rate and severity of prison terms given to aboriginal offenders, said speaker Michele Penney, an aboriginal criminal court support worker at the Ottawa courthouse.
If the bill passes, aboriginal offenders would be “more likely denied bail, (receive) more time in pre-sentence (and) more likely to be sentenced” to custody, she said.
Speakers at the protest said a democratic rot in federal politics is contributing to Parliament’s refusal to tackle inequality they said cuts across societal institutions, including the justice system.
“This is not a House of Commons but a house of privilege,” said NDP deputy justice critic Francoise Boivin.
“There’s so many causes,” the Gatineau MP said in a nod to Occupiers, who she said provide inspiration for groups challenging the crime bill. “But we have one united cause together and that is democracy.”
Speakers at the protest, which saw participants march to the Supreme Court of Canada, said the democratic process is being bent and bruised to rush the crime bill through.
Boivin railed against Conservatives on the justice committee imposing a strict five-minute limit on expert testimony challenging the bill, at times cutting witnesses’ microphones in mid-sentence.
She said Conservative politicians lob insults like “criminal lover" and "pedophile lover" at opposition MPs who speak out against the bill.
“They divide Quebec with the rest of Canada, women against men, victims versus people who want pardons.”
The legislation would usher in mandatory minimum sentences for offences such as drug-related crimes and open the door to an increased use of custodial sentences for a range of offenders, including juveniles.
Among other changes, it would also significantly hike the cost of applying for a pardon.
Boivin said that would make a criminal record-wiping pardon unaffordable for released offenders, crippling their chances at landing a job and making sure they stay a “criminal for life.”
Locking more people behind bars would create more hardened criminals and boost the recidivism rate, said Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society.
“We will have less safe communities, more crime in the streets (and) enormous amounts to be paid” to build correctional capacity, said Latimer, a former Justice Canada official.
The Conservative government has said the megabill will need only an additional $78.5 million in federal spending over five years, though critics charge it will require billions more. Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page is currently working on a cost estimate.
Provincial governments would also have to find money to build additional jails and prisons. Ontario and Quebec have both said that Ottawa alone should pay the crime bill's full cost.
Provinces may also have to find budget room for a Charter challenge of the proposed legislation, Latimer said, since a court case testing the constitutionality of C-10's changes would leave provinces “on the hook to stand up and defend those rights challenges."
The bill is expected to pass third reading before MPs head home for the Christmas break.
Police arrested one man linked to Occupy Ottawa at the protest.
Witnesses said the man was an Occupy demonstrator charged with trespassing during the Confederation Park eviction Wednesday.
He was arrested by RCMP officers at the Saturday rally for violating a condition barring him from Parliament Hill, several witnesses said.