The BC NDP government was on the defensive Tuesday as the Opposition BC Liberals hammered away in a fiery Question Period focused on violent crime.
The back-and-forth came as the B.C. legislature resumed sittings this week, amid a string of high-profile stranger attacks and public anger over the release of suspects awaiting trial.
BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon told the legislature violent criminals were being emboldened to reoffend, accusing the government of operating a “catch-and-release” policy.
In one spirited exchange, Abbotsford-West MLA Mike De Jong pressed NDP Attorney General Murray Rankin into acknowledging that the government does in fact have the power to directly order Crown prosecutors to oppose bail for accused criminals.
“One of the options available to this government and to the attorney general are to issue specific directives, a specific directive to prosecutors across British Columbia how to request and demand from the courts the detention of those people who purposely perpetrate criminal behaviour,” De Jong said, calling for the minister to commit to implementing the recommendations laid out in a recent report on addressing prolific offenders in the province.
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“Under the Crown counsel act, the attorney general has the ability to issue directives, he’s asking me today if we’re going to do that. Mr. Speaker my answer remains as I said in the last intervention, I will examine that and all opportunities to see if that would make a difference, Mr. Speaker, because that is our commitment,” Rankin responded.
Rankin told the legislature the province was looking at a variety of options to address crime concerns rather than trying to arrest its way out of the problem, which he said would be “futile.”
Rankin also pointed to recent federal laws and court rulings which have prioritized “restraint” in the detention of accused individuals.
Off the legislature floor, the NDP took more fire from the Liberals, with Falcon accusing them of trying to distract from the contents of the prolific offender report by releasing it quietly on a government website last Saturday, during the long weekend.
Falcon accused the NDP of failing to act on crime in their six years in power, describing them as “removed from reality” from the situation on city streets.
“What’s required is leadership, leadership that makes decision ,that says it is unacceptable that four people a day in Vancouver alone are being attacked by random strangers and we’re going to deal with it,” he said.
“And we deal with it number one by giving direction to Crown prosecutors to detain people that are unsafe and are a threat to people in the community. Number two, we make sure we support our police officers both morally and with resources, because they’ve got a tough job.”
The prolific offender report, led by former deputy Vancouver police chief Doug LePard and health researcher and criminologist Amanda Butler, focused heavily on increasing crisis and mental health supports within the justice system as a way to break the cycle of repeat crime.
The report also noted the number of people being held pending trial and the length of sentences for convicted offenders had fallen over the course of the pandemic and documented mounting concerns from stakeholders including outreach workers, businesses and municipalities about street disorder and violence along with concerns from police and probation about emboldened offenders unafraid they’ll be held in jail.
You can read the complete report here.
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