The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Attorney General Gord Mackintosh will be pushing the federal government to eliminate conditional sentences for serious violent crimes when he meets with his federal, provincial and territorial counterparts in the national capital next week. Mackintosh said the annual conference of federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for justice will provide a unique opportunity to make progress on introducing restrictions on conditional sentences. "With a new federal justice minister, a minority parliament, a strong and united position from provincial and territorial justice ministers, all backed up with a thorough position document, our demands must surely be acted on," said Mackintosh.Ê "The victims and survivors of impaired driving causing death, serious assault, aggravated robbery, violent sexual crimes against children and other terrible offences deserve no less." In addition to pushing for changes to conditional sentencing, a matter the attorney general has raised frequently with his colleagues, Manitoba is joining other provinces in raising the issue of child exploitation on the Internet.Ê The minister is also raising several issues to better protect Canada's children including: calling for a national Amber Alert network so that these new provincial notification systems for high-risk child abductions can be triggered in a neighbouring jurisdiction when appropriate, urging Ottawa to increase the age of consent for sexual activity to at least 16 with a close-in-age exception, calling for specific protection for child passengers from impaired drivers, and pushing for the introduction of a new criminal law to target persons who knowingly sell intoxicating products for the purpose of sniffing. Others areas of improvement to federal laws that Manitoba is urging include: addressing weakness in The Youth Criminal Justice Act, particularly as it affects chronic, repeat auto thieves, strengthening the law and penalties to counter marijuana grow operations and the production of crystal meth, and strengthening the federal criminal proceeds of crime law. Mackintosh will also be pushing Ottawa for more substantial contributions to Legal Aid. The meeting began yesterday and wrap up tomorrow.
