Ontario’s law-and-order breakdown makes a campaign appearance: Selley

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Whenever a Canadian politician mentions capital punishment, the events that follow are entirely predictable: Other politicians swoon in shock as though he had proposed some insane minority opinion. And I imagine the majority of Canadians — who, polls show, largely support capital punishment for murder — watch the spectacle unfold with a degree of bemusement.

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So it was this week on the campaign trail in Ontario after the Toronto Star obtained an audio recording of Ford’s remarks at a London Police Service gala and awards night on Jan. 29. He suggested that anyone who breaks into a house, armed with a gun, and kills one of the occupants should be sent “right to sparky” (meaning the electric chair).

“Doug Ford is pushing for the death penalty. Just like Trump,” was Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie’s zero-effort reaction on X.  In a statement to CBC, NDP leader Marit Stiles called the remark “ridiculous and very concerning.”

“I think that this is part and parcel of the new rhetoric that we’re hearing. I don’t even want to say Trump-light because there’s nothing light about this,” London city councillor Sam Trosow told the London Free Press. “He’s appealing to an extreme partisan base.” Trosow demanded the city’s mayor and police chief condemn the remarks.

(If nothing else this is testament to how much real estate Trump occupies in Canadian politicians’ heads. No joke, capital punishment was a contentious political issue in Canada within living memory: Parliament only struck it from the criminal code for civilian crimes in 1976, by a narrow 130 to 124 vote in the House of Commons. Among the 37 Liberals who voted against abolition was future prime minister John Turner.)

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Capital punishment is a lousy thing to waste time discussing in a provincial election campaign, and I’m personally glad it’s not on the table in Canada. (Ford’s campaign claims he doesn’t actually support capital punishment, but rather made a “poor-taste joke” out of frustration with the criminal justice system.) But nor do I think people who support it are lunatics consumed by bloodlust — because then I’d have to think that about something like 60 per cent of my fellow Canadians.

Research Co.’s latest poll on the subject, in April last year, found 57 per cent of respondents nationwide, and in Ontario, supported bringing back capital punishment for murder. In addition to Ontarians, the following demographics expressed majority support: men, women, 18-to-34s, 35-to-54s, 55-pluses, British Columbians, Albertans, Saskatchewanians, Manitobans, Quebecers, Atlantic Canadians, Liberals, Conservatives, Indigenous people (who were among the most in favour, at 67 per cent) and respondents of European, South Asian and East Asian ethnic backgrounds. The only demographic not to express majority support were NDP voters. Still, even 49 per cent of them said they are fine with plugging in old sparky.

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Ontarians have spent the better part of six years watching police act as chaperones to law-breaking protesters of various stripes

That doesn’t make it a good idea, by any means. I wouldn’t trust the Canadian criminal-justice system to milk a cow, let alone decide faultlessly on matters of life and death. It’s just always strange to see politicians insisting majority opinions are beyond the pale. That’s not generally how you win arguments, or indeed votes.

After their heads had finished exploding, however, and the usual “American-style” buzzwords had been exhausted, the Liberals did something intelligent: They made the issue about Ford’s law-and-order record.

“If Doug Ford really wanted to get tough on crime, he would have taken action when he had the chance over the last seven years,” Peter Yuen, the party’s candidate in Scarborough-Agincourt and formerly deputy chief of the Toronto Police, said in a statement. “Instead our communities and law enforcement suffered under his watch.”

Indeed. Considering how regularly Ford assails the federal government for being weak on crime, it’s remarkable how infrequently he, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner and Attorney General Doug Downey are asked to account for their own failings — of which there are many.

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Ontarians have spent the better part of six years watching police act as chaperones to law-breaking protesters of various stripes — notably anti-lockdown and anti-Israel — while taking advantage of counter-protesters’ and the general public’s better angels. De-escalation is a worthy goal for police, but you can have too much of a good thing. And we do.

Law enforcement is a provincial responsibility, specifically Kerzner’s.

Ontarians have seen a parade of alleged offenders, including allegedly violent ones, sashay out of court scot-free for lack of a speedy trial. They have seen outrageously lenient sentences imposed for violent crimes that the Crown and defence agreed upon. They have noticed that seemingly 95 per cent of people arrested for causing various brands of mayhem were living under bail or parole orders not to cause mayhem.

The courts are a provincial responsibility. Crown prosecutors take direction from the government, specifically Downey.

On Thursday, Hamilton Police warned residents about 22-year-old Leikeze Cheruiyot, who faces six charges with respect to two separate sexual assaults. On July 13, 2022, he allegedly dragged a woman from a walking trail, then gagged, bound and set upon her. And on Aug. 7, 2023, he allegedly broke into a 74-year-old woman’s home and assaulted her for an hour. And then he fled to the United States, whence he had to be extradited.

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He was released on bail, which is utterly insane — and he’s far from a rare case. The attorney general appoints lower court judges and justices of the peace. And he might well not face a single question about it during this election campaign. No time better than the present.

National Post
cselley@postmedia.com

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