GOVERNMENT CONTINUES EFFORTS TO IMPLEMENT CONSERVATIVE LAW
As the government of Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, MP, celebrates the first anniversary of its “majority status,” the Harper government is continuing its efforts to implement its conservative law and order proposals and budgetary measures. For over six years, the
Harper government has had to compose with a minority situation in the House of Commons. As a result, many of the proposals at the core of the Conservative political platform were constantly frustrated. The May 2012 general election and the Conservative elected majority gave a second wind to the Harper Government. Within the first 100 sitting days of the new parliamentary session, the government succeeded, as promised during the electoral campaign, in having Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, enacted by Parliament. Bill C-10, also known as the Omnibus Crime Bill, included a series of government bills presented in previous sessions that the opposition had delayed or refused to adopt in the House of Commons. Another proposal adopted in the early days of the new Parliament was the Budget Implementation Act for the budget presented on 6 June 2011 to the House by the Minister of Finance. The lack of support from the opposition parties for these budgetary measures had, in part,
130 | The Parliamentarian | 2012: Issue Two Rt Hon. Stephen Harper, MP
contributed to the defeat of the Harper Government on 25 March 2011, and triggered the general election that followed. The Conservative
government is, after a year, continuing its efforts to tackle crime, and implement a Conservative budgetary policy.
Protecting elderly Canadians On 15 March 2012, Bill C-36, the Protecting Canada's Seniors Act, was introduced in the House of Commons. On that day, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Hon. Rob Nicholson, MP, said: “Our government has a responsibility to protect elderly Canadians and to ensure that crimes against them are punished appropriately. This legislation will help ensure tough sentences for those who take advantage of vulnerable members of our society.” Bill C- 36 would amend the Criminal Code to add vulnerability due to age as an aggravating circumstance for sentencing purposes.
Another legislative initiative
aimed at amending the Criminal Code was introduced on 24 April 2012. Bill C-37, the Increasing Offenders' Accountability for Victims Act, would change the rules governing victim surcharges. Mr Nicholson explained in the House of Commons “today we introduced legislation that will make convicted offenders more accountable to the victims of crime. We will double the federal victim surcharge that offenders must pay and ensure that this surcharge is automatically applied in all cases. The revenue from this surcharge is used to provide direct services to victims of crime. We believe this sends the right message to criminals: they must pay for the harm that they caused their victims”. Victim surcharges are additional penalties imposed on convicted offenders at the time of sentencing. They are collected by the provincial and territorial governments, and fund programmes and services for victims in the province or territory where the crime was committed.
Nuclear Terrorism Act On 27 March 2012, the government introduced Bill S-9, the Nuclear Terrorism Act, in the Senate. The Bill would create new offences related to and that would deter nuclear terrorism. However, the legislative