Wil Andruschak

Calgary North-Centre NDP candidate John Chan says instead of spending money on incarcerating youth for longer periods of time, the government should 'spend that money on dealing with social issues that foster crime'

Soft on crime does not work, says the Conservative TV ad. Cut to leader Stephen Harper in his armchair, assuring Canadians that a Conservative government is “determined to crack down on crime, whether it is by youth or by anybody else.”

It’s compelling television, but as part of that crackdown, Harper plans to scrap the Youth Criminal Justice Act and replace it with a harsher law that would allow for the public naming of young offenders — a strategy experts and opposition candidates warn would do more harm than good. “(It’s) a regressive approach,” says John Chan, the NDP candidate in Calgary North-Centre. “Harper has insistently pursued measures that are about enacting vigilance on offenders, and not about instituting change that will actually make our communities safer.” Chan says that instead of forking out more cash to incarcerate youth for longer periods of time, the government should “spend that money on dealing with social issues that foster crime.”

The Conservatives promise to boost the budget of their Youth Gang Prevention Fund to $10 million, but they’re also pitching stiffer sentences for violent young offenders, including the possibility of life sentences for youths 14 years and older who commit first- or second-degree murder. “From our perspective, the whole ‘get tough’ agenda is essentially a feel-good agenda,” says Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada, an organization that works with young offenders and advocates for evidence-based correctional policy. “It’s not grounded in evidence and it’s not based on best practices.”

Violent offenders as young as 14 would also be named publicly under Harper’s new law — a change that would violate The Beijing Rules, a 1985 UN agreement on youth justice. Naming young offenders, Jones says, is “counterproductive” because it stigmatizes the teenager for life and cuts his or her chances of being rehabilitated. It could also backfire and attract more teenagers to crime, he says. “Young people tend to be risk-takers and glory-seekers, so the more you enshroud a particular kind of behaviour with the trappings of notoriety, the more likely you are to undermine the real purpose of your criminal justice policy, which is to reduce and deter.”

The Conservatives’ new law would re-introduce deterrence as a primary goal of sentencing — a principle that was purposely left out of the Youth Criminal Justice Act because of its ineffectiveness. “It’s a step backwards,” says Jones.

John Winterdyk, a Mount Royal College criminologist, also says there is “no real evidence” that naming young offenders would deter crime. “We know, from the literature, that most offenders aren’t deterred by such things.” Winterdyk says a more effective way of reducing youth crime is to ensure children grow up in healthy homes. “When you find people who come from a quote-unquote healthy environment, more often than not they will experiment as they go through their adolescent years, but then we grow out of it,” says Winterdyk.

To make their case for scrapping the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Conservatives paint a frightening picture: in 2006, violent crime by young offenders was up 30 per cent from 1991, according to Statistics Canada. But while violent crimes make up a larger share of youth crime, the overall youth crime rate fell by 25 per cent during the same time period, a pattern that reflects the overall decrease in crime in Canada. “Media reports of gang activity make people think that the crime rate is going wild, and it’s really not. It’s decreasing,” says Gordon Sand, executive director of the Calgary John Howard Society — the organization’s local branch. Canada’s youth justice system, Sand says, is already “working wonderfully.” He points to the half-empty Calgary Young Offender Centre as an example. “It used to be packed to the rafters,” he says.

Randy Weeks, the Green Party candidate in Calgary West, says Harper’s proposal to revamp youth justice is a “cynical ploy to get votes from the uninformed voter.” Weeks says the Green Party would direct its efforts toward crime prevention. “Most kids don’t turn to crime, and the ones that do are marginalized and think they have no other option,” he says. Marlene LaMontagne, the Liberal candidate running against Harper in Calgary Southwest, agrees that “we need to focus on supporting young people.” Naming young offenders, she says, may be necessary in the case of gangs. “But I see it as [something] to be handled very carefully,” says LaMontagne.

Conservative candidates Rob Anders and Jim Prentice did not respond to interview requests by press time.