When I was a kid my father would on occasion raise his voice and pound the dining room table. Football got him cranked up, but the politics of this nation never failed to arouse his strongest emotions.
Back in 1968 I have no doubt Trudeaumania confounded him, so did Trudeau’s radical views on abortion and homosexuality. The fact he beat Dad’s old boss Robert Winters for the Liberal leadership turned Pa into a vocal, small-c conservative.
Forty years later, I find myself yearning for the Trudeau era and participatory democracy in Canada. I don’t bang the table while listening to the news like my father was wont to, but sometimes the old blood pressure gets roiling.
Like last week when Public Safety Minister Vic Toews beaked off while trying to convince a Senate committee to pass the Harper government's omnibus crime bill in a hurry.
The provinces have been complaining about Bill C-100 since last fall. Their concerns are about the cost of implementing the bill due to expected increases in prisoner populations. Quebec is outright refusing to pay for the expenses associated with the new crime bill.
Toews said that it is not fair for the provinces to ask the federal government for more money because of Bill C-100 when their health policies have resulted in more costs to the federal government. He said there has been a breakdown in the delivery of mental health services at the provincial level, which has resulted in more prisoners with mental health issues.
"So do we then send them a bill and say we have to build new wings in our federal penitentiaries because of your provincial policies?" Toews asked.
From the get go I could not comprehend the Conservatives’ get tough on crime approach. Now they want to build new prisons, when the crime rate in Canada is going down, while heaping the blame on the provinces.
A worldwide move to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill began long ago. Now those who are homeless and mentally ill roam our downtowns often become criminals because community supports are not there.
According the Correctional Service of Canada, there is already a significant problem in our prisons. In 2007, 10 per cent of federal inmates were diagnosed as having mental illness at time of admission.
Howard Sapers, who has been reappointed as the Correctional Investigator of Canada, noted that the number of offenders with mental disorders in 2004 was 60 per cent higher compared to 1967. When substance abuse was included, the total increase was 84 per cent.
We must not forget 19-year-old Ashley Smith who died on the floor of a dark segregation prison cell in 2007. The teen, who had a long history of mental health issues, was transferred 17 times.
Sapers’ 2009 report outlined how the number of mentally ill offenders had risen to 12 per cent of the prison population. One in four inmates were taking prescribed medication for a psychiatric condition.
The situation is worst for women, with over 30 per cent of female inmates having previously been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons. According to Sapers, federal prisons are now warehousing the largest psychiatric populations, with very little capacity to treat underlying mental health issues.
“The population is not just increasing,” Sapers told the Hill Times last year, “but the populations within penitentiaries are becoming more complex and, in some ways, more difficult to manage and program for.”
Sapers, ombudsman for federal offenders, said the situation will only get worse once Bill C-10 becomes law.
The largest project in Canadian history to study the link between homelessness and mental health has already indicated a “housing first, recovery will follow” strategy can work. More prison cells are not required.
Former cabinet minister Claudette Bradshaw, who spoke here last fall, detailed how the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi program is giving about 1,300 people a place to call home and solid social supports. But this country has between 150,000 and 300,000 homeless people.
Are they really meant to call jail home? Surely we can do better; surely we can spread more supports out into the community and prevent the need for new prisons.
