With general crime rates falling across the land, the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime agenda may be running out of pockets of miscreants to target.
By the way, crime rates in general were falling long before the avalanche of Conservative tough-on-crime, a bad-guy-behind-every-tree crusade began but that’s just picky.
Justice minister Rob Nicholson and public safety minister Vic Toews have done an admirable job of finding bad guys to target over the past few years — terrorists, illegal immigrants, child soldiers trying to defend themselves, fraudulent employment insurance claimants, the mentally ill judged ‘not guilty’ because of their illness among others.
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But eventually, most wells run dry.
Thankfully, the government has found a new batch of potential bad guys (and gals) to target and unlike those shady characters in north end Toronto or Winnipeg or the hoods of Calgary, they more or less know where they work and live.
In fact, the tough-on-crime government gave most of them well-paying, long-term jobs.
Welcome to the Senate.
After two weeks of unrelenting criticism of senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau for not knowing where they live and dinging taxpayers for the cost of their Ottawa digs (Brazeau in this sorry fiasco is the only one with a leg to stand on despite other legal problems), the Conservative government has decided to get tough.
Yes, there was the small matter of senator Duffy getting a secret $90,000 payment from the prime minister’s then-chief of staff Nigel Wright to pay ineligible expenses after which he refused to co-operate with an audit trying to look at his expenses.
Oh and yes, there is Saskatchewan senator Pamela Wallin, under investigation over how she managed to spend more than $300,000 on travel expenses.
Both Duffy and Wallin have withdrawn from the Conservative caucus.
So this week, the government has decided to bring in tough new rules to require senators to — gasp — provide receipts and such to justify travel claims (did I mention Duffy claiming per diem expenses while he was in Florida — an error by a staffer, or course, repaid by Wright).
There will be no more honour system among honourable senators.
The alternative, said government senate leader Marjory LeBreton — she of Brian Mulroney patronage days as an awarder and recipient — is possibly the demise of the Senate.
“Canadians understand that our Senate as it stands today must either change … or vanish,” she warned.
But the problem for the Conservatives is that these are not miscreants from crime pockets of some big cities or illegal immigrants far from the seats and designer dresses of Parliament.
These are not folks from the public housing shambles of Ottawa, or Vancouver, or Calgary.
These are well-heeled Conservatives, selected by prime minister Stephen Harper because of their work for the party and their accomplishments.
They were let loose with few restraints. Guess what happened?
So the tough-on-crime (or at least tough-on-bad-judgment) crowd on Parliament Hill looks inward.
It is about time.
