You can see the desperation of the Conservative government in the bills it is trying to pass while still in office. You can see it in the names of their bills. The name of the bill has little to do with the content. It is intended to confuse—to give one message to supporters and another message to the masses. While the Fair Elections Act is a desperate attempt to subvert elections to conservative advantage, the Victims Bill of Rights shows the conservative desire to put retribution ahead of justice.
And the main problem is that conservatives do not really understand the difference. There is this naïve, almost childlike desire for retribution at the core of their approach. “I am going to get even with you,” the child says.
But getting even is not something you can easily write into law. An eye for an eye, or the ancient law of talion, that seeks equal retaliation for an injury, fails to allow for redemption of the doer. It ignores contrition. It says there is no hope for reform. It says humans exist in an animalistic environment, living by instinct and incapable of learning. It is an attitude that lacks hope for the human condition.
The difference in thinking is that where a conservative wants to build prisons; a liberal wants to build society. A liberal wants a cognitive system of justice and courts that can seek to heal as well as adjudicate. Conservatives try to force the judiciary into rubber-stamping fixed penalties where liberals seek to encourage creative solutions to human controversy.
And bear in mind, the Supreme Court—that is now dominated by Conservative appointees—recently told the government that the miss-named Truth in Sentencing Act that was passed in 2009 needs fixing. The justices said the act needed to be less stringent in giving sentencing credits to people held for months in jail before a trial. Added to the recent rejection of the Prime Minister’s appointment of Justice Marc Nadon, Mr. Harper and his conservatives are not batting a 1000 at the Supreme Court. Nor are they getting much of an approval rating from all Canadians.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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