I’m a little hesitant to post this, as I’m wary of conflating American issues with Canadian — but with that caveat in mind:
Adam Gopnik, this year’s Massey Lecturer, has a good article in this week’s New Yorker on the American prison system, which you can find here.
It’s hard not to be outraged by the American justice system. I don’t want to suggest Canada’s prison or justice system is good (that’s an argument I never want to make) but I’m comfortable suggesting it is better than America’s. I bring the comparison in only because some of the more egregious flaws of the American justice system are in the process of being legislated in Canada at the moment. The omnibus crime bill (The Globe has a summary here) contains many ‘American’ provisions criticized in the article; including the expansion of mandatory minimum sentences, and harsher punishment for youth and non-violent crime. There are doubtless parts of the bill worth implementing; but there are others that strike me as dangerous, if not entirely ethically vacuous.
That the primary source of effective opposition to this bill is concerned with its cost is a little hard to stomach.
Calum
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