The Hon. Stockwell Day along with Conservative Party candidates Dianne Watts (South Surrey- White Rock), Harpreet Singh (Surrey- Newton), and Sucha Thind (Surrey Centre), today announced that a re-elected Conservative government will increase funding to help steer youth away from gangs and will create a formal list criminal organizations to expedite prosecutions.
“Criminal gangs are a serious threat to Canadian communities and Canadian values,” said Harpreet Singh. “They prey on young people, steal private property, traffic in illegal drugs and commit 20 per cent of Canada’s murders.”
To crack down on criminal gangs, a re-elected Conservative government would increase funding for the Youth Gang Prevention Fund. It was announed that 2.4 million per year will be funded in this regard, amounting to a total of 10 million over the next four years. The fund, launched by the Conservative government in 2006, seeks to reduce youth gang violence by reaching out to at-risk youth.
A re-elected Conservative government will also create a formal list of organized criminal gangs and eliminate the inefficient requirement for the Crown to prove repeatedly in individual cases that a specific gang in a criminal organization.
Noting that the Opposition parties would not make fighting crime a priority, Dianne Watts reviewed the Conservative government’s strong record of cracking down on guns, gangs and organized crime, including:
· Introducing mandatory minimum penalties for offenses related to guns, gangs and drugs
· Making all murders connected to organized crime automatically first-degree murder
· Toughening penalties for auto-theft and trafficking property obtained by crime
“Justin Trudeau’s sole criminal justice priority is to change the law to allow the sale of marijuana in corner stores,” said Ms. Watts. Justin just doesn’t understand the importance of cracking down on organized criminal gangs.”
“Thomas Mulcair is a career politician leading an NDP whose dangerous criminal justice policy would make our communities less safe,” said Ms. Watts. “Mulcair and the NDP oppose our actions to increase penalties for gangs and dangerous criminals because they wrongly put the so-called rights of criminal ahead of the rights of the victims.”
