Friday 7 May 2010

Lock Up the Tenants!

When I saw this at The Disaffected Lib, I didn't believe it. Mound of Sound is messing with us, I thought.

But it's true.
Tenants caught growing as few as six marijuana plants in their dwellings could face automatic jail terms of at least nine months, under a federal drug-sentencing bill revived Wednesday that imposes harsher penalties on home renters than on owners.

DJ! readers may recall my recent and vivid experience of the lowly legal status of citizens who rent their homes -- and, yes, I'm still planning on blogging about the whole ordeal -- but I'm gob-smacked.

What on earth could be the justification for hitting tenants harder than homeowners?

I read on:
The Harper government's proposed legislation imposes stiffer punishment on renters than it does on homeowners, because involving a third party is one of several aggravating factors.

Huh? Third party? Who? The landlord?

This just adds a whole new layer of idiocy to the Tory 'Stupid on Crime' program.

Let's go over the pressing reasons King Steve the First had to stack the Senate to pass this steaming pile of doo-doo.

The crime rate has been trending lower for decades.

Mandatory sentencing does not work to deter crime.

Mandatory sentencing works very nicely at filling up jails though -- to the point that many Merkin states are going broke over it.

And low-life tenants deserve harsher sentencing than homeowners. . . well, just because the ReformaTories are authoritarians with a hard-on for hurting vulnerable people.

Oh. No. Wait. I just remembered. According to the Minister of Farm Hair, it's for the wimmins:
“Our government has done more than any other government in the history of this country to keep women safe,” says Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose, who is also in charge of the status of women in the Harper government.

“We have introduced new laws to make sure that we keep rapists and murderers off the street and to make sure that we protect children from sexual predators. That is what women want.”

Rona knows better than Sigmund Freud. But Bill Cosby really knows:
“Sigmund Freud once said, "What do women want?" The only thing I have learned in fifty-two years is that women want men to stop asking dumb questions like that.”

3 comments:

ck said...

I did a post last night about that in response to a local talk radio host in part and also my 'colere' against Harpercons telling us what we're supposed to think and feel so they can ram their evil agendas.

It's basically a list along with a cute video of Rolling Stones song, Mother's little helper.

I also set up as a, sort of, open letter, where commenters who agree simply leave their name or if they had anything to add, to add it.

It's purpose was not just to respond to the talk show host, but to prove to many that Rona Ambrose the big haired girl who dresses like Ellie-May Clampett on steroids that she and her master really have no clue.

Mark Richard Francis said...

"What on earth could be the justification for hitting tenants harder than homeowners? "

Six pot plants cause what kind of problem for landlords? Huh?

Oh, Grow ops... okay, that's a drag to landlords.

Many homeowners have mortgages. Grow ops ruin homes. Owners stop paying their mortgages when they go to jail. The bank -- a third party -- gets left on the hook.

Stupid, arbitrary law.

Alison said...

Stupid on crime is a great slogan. Harpie will never let reality and facts get in the way of his ideology. Legalize marijuana and the problem goes away. The government gets gobs of taxes and we don't ruin lives and spend a ton on prisons. Gee, that would be just too sensible.

I hope the provinces refuse to spend a dime on extra incarceration. It definitely will not make us safer, au contraire. If there is one thing prisons are good for, it is training a future generation of criminals.

If the ReformaTories really wanted to do something to make us safer, they could have done something about the pardon situation for violent offenders and sexual predators. But, no.

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