‘We need to look at more than enforcement’

The “tough on crime” message put forward by the federal justice minister and attorney general during his visit to Sudbury last week was “very welcome,” according to Al Lekun, deputy Chief of the Greater Sudbury Police.

Lekun, along with several other local police officers, Mayor Marianne Matichuk and Conservative candidates Lynne Reynolds and Fred Slade, participated in a roundtable discussion with Rob Nicholson at the Radisson Hotel Jan. 19. Nicholson was in Sudbury as part of a short tour of northern Ontario.

Lekun said he spoke to Nicholson about intervention strategies for youth at risk, prostitution and the influence of drugs on the community.

“We do believe that tougher sentences are required to deter individuals,” Lekun said.

At the same time, Lekun said he and his colleagues told Nicholson crime prevention is also an integral part of community safety, especially when it comes to youth. “We need to be able to identify youth at risk, and really get across the point that we need to look at more than enforcement,” he said. “We need to look at intervention strategies and education awareness strategies to be successful with our youth.”

Nicholson told reporters gathered at a news conference after the meeting he has 14 bills before Parliament he hopes to have passed when the session resumes at the end of this month.

One of the bills would repeal the “faint hope” clause for convicted murderers, which allows them to apply for early parole after 15 years, Nicholson said.

Families are “victimized” all over again at the end of 15 years because they worry about offenders being let out of jail, he said.

There’s also a bill to hand out harsher penalties for drug crimes, Nicholson said. The government needs to look at what it can do to prevent people from getting involved in drugs in the first place, he added.