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LET me begin with gratitude to Don McPherson in St. Andrews, for his Nov. 17 letter to the editor responding to a recent column.
“Charles Adler seems to be suggesting we need more politicians that show contempt for the legal system. I suggest he look to the Trump experience in the U.S. Now there’s a politician with contempt for the legal system! How’s that working out for them?”
Many Manitoba readers are inhaling and agreeing with Don’s taut takedown. I have a well-earned reputation as a conservative communicator. Naturally, Don McPherson and many others think I want us to be governed by Canadian knockoffs of Donald Trump. I cannot be inside our readers’ minds. But I owe it to all of them to clarify a column that clearly failed to deliver Swiss watch precision.
On Nov. 16 in these pages, I focused on a Canadian legal system, woefully deficient in meeting our number one requirement — public safety.
Those who commit crimes get processed in a system that keeps them incarcerated for a limited amount of time, only to be released a short time later. On the street, the system is known derisively as “catch and release.”
Since everyone in and outside the system know that those convicted are likely to recommit crimes after being released, the system invites contempt. A politician like Pierre Poilievre, who effortlessly gives the system a regular scalding, draws a political benefit from that.
“Prime Minister Trudeau is one of the most talented retail politicians I have ever met. But I have never seen him show contempt for the legal system. It’s not in his DNA.” Those are the words from my recent column which triggered McPherson’s letter to the editor.
He thinks I pine for a Canadian version of Donald Trump in the Prime Minister’s Office. The truth is that if the legal system continues to operate with business as usual, the road is paved for Poilievre. His politics gives the legal system a finger. The prime minister’s politics gives it an excuse.
Something inexcusable happened in Osborne Village. Three people in the Shoppers Drug Mart, a 30-year-old woman, a 54-year-old woman and and a 75-year-old man were stabbed.
We are all thankful to Winnipeg paramedics for getting three stabbing victims to the hospital quickly and to medical staff for keeping three innocent people alive. The person under arrest is a 24-year-old woman.
Like many other people, routinely processed in our legal system, she is without a home or a job. What she has is a history of mental illness, a meth habit and a lengthy criminal record. This is not to demonize her.
We are told that her particular mental illness can make her violent, especially if she is under the influence of meth. Her last release from incarceration was only two months ago. If she is convicted for what happened a week ago in Osborne Village, she is likely to be back on the streets within a couple of years living in an encampment, getting social assistance and purchasing methamphetamine.
The essential question for Don McPherson and all Manitobans is: how can the system be reformed to emphasize safety for our citizens? And that has to includes those with serious mental illnesses.
We know that prison sentences don’t reduce suffering for inmates or their victims, past and future.
We have to find places to house and treat people who are a threat to themselves and others. I get that some readers will insist that I am being callously right-wing. But it should be clear to anyone the status quo guarantees more innocents being sent to the hospital for stab wounds.
The legal system is bleeding competence and credibility because it is ill-suited to deal effectively with the consequences of mental illness and drug addiction.
If I still haven’t been clear enough after nearly two completed columns, let me deliver in a way that ensures that you will never forget the message. Public safety is not guaranteed by electing right-wing politicians and hiring people like me who can create 30-second attack ads in a coma.
Electing Donald Trump wouldn’t solve this problem any more than electing Donald Duck. But I do want to thank Donald McPherson for sparking a conversation about what needs to be done to protect our people.
Manitobans deserve much more than an ambulance with a full tank.
Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster.
charles@charlesadler.com
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