Niagara’s Rob Nicholson Remains Tougher Than Tough On Crime

A Commentary by Doug Draper

One thing you can say for Niagara Falls’ federal MP Rob Nicholson. He’s a determined man who is true to his word.

Hey Rob, why can't we have a prison like this in Niagara?

Nicholson, who also happens to be the justice minister for Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is bound, bent and determined to spend billions of dollars of our money – money that could be spent on educating our children to keep up with their counterparts in China and India – that could be spent on educating our children building new prisons and all kinds of new expanded courts and lawyers, and other legal apparatus to fight crime. And yet, why shouldn’t Nicholson hold on to a hard Texas/Mississippi stance against crime in this country?

After all, the latest figures from Statistics Canada show that violent crime in the country has reached levels not seen since 1973, before there were any fax machines, let alone cell phones or ipods. But that is apparently no reason for change for a hot-to-the-trot, crime fighter like Nicholson.
“As far as our government is concerned,” Nicholson was quoted saying in an article this July 21 in The Toronto Sun, “one victim of crime is still one too many. This government has a strong mandate to tackle crime (and) we intend to deliver.”

Well, that’s fine. And who could argue with the idea that even one crime is one too many, especially if it was committed against one of us. Except our chances of dying in a car crash or from respiratory disease related to air pollution are far greater, statistically, than being mugged by Paul Benardo, or whoever the justice minister has in mind.

Yet, if he is right, and it is better to spend anywhere between $4 billion and $10 billion on more jails and courts and judges and lawyers, and whatever else it take to siphon all these criminals through the justice system, then go for it.

In Niagara, where the unemployment rate is about the highest in the country and we could sure need more jobs, perhaps Nicholson could use his pull as a senior minister to get a federal prison located in his Niagara Falls riding. Surely the majority of citizens in that riding, who gave him their overwhelming support in this spring’s federal election, would not object.

There seems to be a lot of land out there next to Marineland, that amusement park for confined whales and other mammals. Why not have a prison for humans somewhere next door. They may even be able to chain the human prisoners up in gangs and have them go over to Marineland and clean up the feces in the deer and bear pens. It would be another nice way of teaching some schmuck who stole some money for food in this ongoing ‘jobless recovery’ we continue to find no way out of a lesson.

Just a few thoughts I hope the justice minister will take me up on. After all, if we are going to see billions of dollars of our tax money thrown at fighting crime (however much lower the crime rate is), lets make sure Niagara profits from it locally.

I can’t stop rubbing my hands thinking about all the profits that are going to come out of those bars and razor wire in our region right now.

Come on Rob. Deliver!

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