Roundup: Life means life

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Because the Harper government can’t keep the good people of Canada too scared, he made a big show about announcing yet another piece of tough-on-crime legislation. One that is completely unnecessary given existing laws in place – one which will give cabinet the authority to permanently deny parole from certain murderers, as though there was any chance that the Clifford Olsons or Paul Bernardos of the world would ever walk the streets again – but the government certainly wants you to think that they could given all those liberal judges and such. Never mind that the recidivism rate for most inmates given full parole is about three percent. Never mind that it has pretty much no chance of surviving a Charter challenge in the courts. Never mind that it sets up the odd dichotomy where this government believes that parliamentarians can’t be trusted with national security but can instead be trusted with denying someone parole permanently. Never mind the impact on the rule of law. No, this government needs people to think that they’re going to be tough on crime, and damn the actual consequences. So here we are. Andrew Coyne eviscerates the bill with his usual aplomb here.

Good reads:

  • Carissima Mathen takes on that judge in Quebec who wouldn’t hear a case from a woman in a hijab.
  • Paul Wells writes about Stephen Harper’s relationship with Bill Gates and Barack Obama.
  • Oops! The Liberals have apologised after putting out a statement that mixed up a still-living Russian opposition leader with Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down last week.
  • It looks like the RCMP are going to play the Ottawa shooter’s video at committee on Friday, which he talks about foreign policy issues like fight in “Muslim lands” and the like.
  • A Conservative MLA in Alberta is sounding the alarm at the federal government stoking terrorism fears.

Odds and ends:

Archaeologists will begin diving to the HMS Erebus as of this April.

The man who impersonated a soldier on Remembrance Day plead guilty to two of the four charges against him.

https://twitter.com/bmac_ottawa/status/573217364466110464

https://twitter.com/channay/status/573220311824351232

https://twitter.com/trashyparmer/status/573219843614375937