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Crime in Canada: Some advice for the new government: Sentencing policies and repeat offenders top the list of problems to deal with

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The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister
Ottawa, Ontario

Dear Prime Minister:

Re: Crime in Canada

In the election campaign, you committed to reducing crime in Canada. The Vancouver Board of Trade has worked toward this objective for a decade. We offer this information in support of your efforts to deal with this serious problem.

To assess the amount of crime that actually occurs, Canada, the United States and many other countries use large victimization surveys of the whole public.

In its 2004 report, Criminal Victimization in Canada, Statistics Canada shows that 28 per cent of Canadians over 15 were victimized one or more times in the prior 12 months -- one in 10 were victims of violent crime.

Even more alarmingly is the reality that actual crime rates in Canada, in almost every category, are much higher than the U.S. The U.S. Department of Justice survey, Criminal Victimization, 2004, can be compared to the Statistics Canada survey. The results show Canadians are five times more likely to be the victims of violent crime than Americans. The rate of property crimes is also much higher in Canada.

Crime rates in Canada are also higher than most other industrialized countries. According to UN victimization surveys in 2000, for example, the rates of assaults, threats, and burglaries in Canada were higher than the corresponding rates in over 75 per cent of the 20 OECD countries.

While the homicide rate in the U.S. is higher than Canada's, homicide comprises only a small percentage of total crime and less than 0.2 per cent of serious crime. Although unacceptable at any rate, homicide is a poor indicator of overall crime rates and masks Canada's much worse aggregate violent crime record.

Crimes reported to police are the most common statistics used by commentators, no doubt because the data is readily available and frequently updated. But, this data seriously understates the problem because two-thirds of crimes in Canada are not reported to police at all. According to Statistics Canada, in 2004 only 34 per cent of victimization incidents were reported to police.

Between 1993 and 2004, the overall crime rate in the U.S. went down dramatically, by 51 per cent. The violent crime rate there fell by 57 per cent. In comparison, rates of household and personal property theft increased in Canada over the same period, and Canada's much higher overall violent crime rate remained unchanged between the 1999 and 2004 victimization surveys.

Canadians need to face the fact that we have an unacceptably high crime rate. And, we need to drive it down with measures proved successful in fighting crime elsewhere.

The policies behind federal sentencing guidelines that do not hold people responsible for what they do are a key problem. Canada needs to deal more strongly with repeat offenders who routinely receive light court sentences, which do not escalate with the number of convictions.

Increasing and escalating prison sentences will at least protect the public by preventing these criminals -- who commit most of the crimes -- from victimizing more citizens.

Recent research shows that up to one-third of the dramatic reduction in U.S. crime rates since 1993 can be attributed to increased imprisonment. It also shows that more police has had a significant impact in reducing crime.

Prime minister, Canada has a serious problem with crime, and far too many victims of crime.

The Vancouver Board of Trade supports sentencing policies that better meet community expectations and provide better protection of the public; more police; vigorous prosecution; better measures to deal with gangs and organized crime; less tolerance for drug traffickers, habitual and dangerous criminals; and policies that hold people responsible for their criminal behaviour.

Equally important, we also support more and better treatment for drug addicts; rehabilitation initiatives; crime prevention measures; education and literacy programs; effective early childhood development programs, and improved accountability of the courts.

We welcome your commitment to deal with this pressing priority for Canada. We stand ready to work with you and your government in addressing this serious problem.

Sincerely,

Daniel F. Muzyka,Chairman
Vancouver Board of Trade