In Canada, section 11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states: "Any person charged with an offence has the right ... to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal".
Presumption of innocence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toews says new crime bill 'not unconstitutional'
If the bill is approved, a three-time repeat violent and sexual offender would have to convince a judge why he or she is not a dangerous offender -- a status that carries an indefinite prison sentence with no parole eligibility for seven years. It's currently the Crown's task to prove repeat offenders are dangerous. "It is not unconstitutional, we have considered it very carefully," Toews said Tuesday.
Obviously they have not considered it carefully enough!
See:
Toews
Canada's Prison Indsustrial Complex
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As much as I like to disagree with anything Conservative, sa far as I'm concerned by the time you've raped a women or child three times, or killed some one three times, or beat someone senseless three times, you've worn out your welcome in free society.
ReplyDeleteI would make an assumption that someone who was charged and incarcerated for the same type of crime more than twice has likely not learned their lesson and should be kept where they cannot harm anyone else. I am not disagreeing with the fact that perhaps these people need more help, its just that even with help you can't guarantee that they will not go out and commit the same crime again.
But the State can already do this, sans the reverse onus, the onus is on the prosecution. The problem is that there is NOT enough funding for the prosecution of these guys. And nothing in this act will increase funding or amount of prosecutors, it is left up to the provinces to deal with.
ReplyDeleteSo while its nice on paper in reality it is downloading the burden to overburdened provincial courts and prosecutors.