It's a very simple proposition: if someone commits a crime with a gun, that person should spend a period of time in jail.

Most of the Canadian population would agree with the Conservatives gun bill. After all, it was one of their key platforms during the last election, and the Conservatives won.

Unfortunately, Manitoba Liberal MP's don't agree.

Neville said the bill was poor legislation because it stripped the judiciary of its sentencing powers and refused to support it.

"It flew against the advice of many people in the justice system," said Neville, adding sentencing is often best left to judges after they've heard all the evidence in a case and not legislators.

"You have to leave the discretion to the judiciary."

She said her main concern with the bill was an escalating clause that would send criminals to prison for longer sentences with subsequent offences.

Except that judges have been saying for years that new legislation is needed if Canada is to get tough on gun crimes. They've claimed that there are precedents that prevent them from handing down "tough" sentences. The only solution to this problem is new legislation.

The "escalating clause" of the bill which Neville is so opposed to, is one that would have criminals serve longer sentences the second time they commit an offense. As the bill currently stands, for a first conviction of a gun crime, the minimum sentence handed down would be a five year jail term. On that persons second offense, the minimum sentence would lengthen to a seven year jail term. If you keep doing the crime, you keep getting more time. It seems fair.

Not to Anita Neville however. Neville would rather leave that up to the judges discretion, to let the criminals justify there behavior, and get a slap on the wrist. We're not talking about punk auto-thieves, or shoplifters here; we're talking about criminals that point a gun at their victims and threaten their lives. They have absolutely no place on our streets.

The truth of the matter is that for three consecutive Liberal governments, the laws of this land were watered down in favor of criminals. If Liberal MP's were to vote in favor of these "tough on crime" laws, it'd be an admission that their reign was a failure. You need to look no further than the Youth Criminal Justice Act for evidence.

The Liberals would rather spend billions of dollars on a gun registry, which has proven to be a failure, while letting the criminals off without taking any responsibility.

In fact all of Manitoba's Liberal MP's voted against the legislation. That includes Tina Keeper, MP for Churchill; and Ray Simard, MP for St. Boniface. For the Liberal MP's from Manitoba it was a free vote, they had no instructions as to how to vote. They voted how they thought their constituents would have wanted them to vote. But even the typically soft-on-crime NDP voted for the bill.

To those folks living in Winnipeg South-Center, contact Anita Neville and let her know how you feel about her "stand" to keep as many gun criminals on the streets as possible. She can be e-mailed at Neville.A@parl.gc.ca or at email@anitaneville.ca.

Update: Right in Manitoba raises another point:

Even more ironic is that just this week we heard Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty demanding that the federal Conservatives toughen up gun laws. Rather than call on the Conservatives Dalton, you may do better talking to you brother David [Liberal MP for Ottawa South] and his cronies!

Labels: Anita Neville, Canadian Justice, Conservative Party, Guns, Liberal Party, Manitoba, NDP, politics, Winnipeg Crime

When you see the words "Liberal" and "tough on crime" in the same headline, you know it'll be funny.

Getting tougher on car thieves is the main plank in the Manitoba Liberals' justice platform.

Jon Gerrard, on the first day of the provincial election campaign, says his government would impose an automatic lifetime ban on holding a driver's licence for anyone convicted of two auto thefts.

Here's an idea for Doctor Jon: Throw the bastards in jail!

The fact that the Liberal's actually believe that the absence of a drivers license would deter a serial car thief makes me wonder if Mr. Gerrard wasn't smoking on the Legislative Buildings front lawn with all the potheads on April 20th.

Come to think of it, he does seem a little confused:

Gerrard says poverty and mental-health issues are the root causes of many of Manitoba's crime problems. He would fund support for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and provide adequate community centre facilities to keep kids off the streets.

Jon also doesn't buy into Anita Neville's head-in-sand approach to crime:

The Liberal leader says Winnipeg is no longer a safe city. Winnipeg has a national reputation as the car-theft capital of Canada.

Will Anita Neville demand an apology from Jon Gerrard for sullying Winnipeg's good name? Not likely, they're good friends. Anita Neville actually chaired Jon Gerrard's 1999 campaign. They also both like to blame crime on so-called root causes.

Labels: Anita Neville, Canadian Justice, Liberal Party, Manitoba, Winnipeg Crime

You know Anita Neville is worried about her chances in the next election. When a Liberal MP starts making accusations of racism to members of the opposition, you know they're worried about something.

From Sunday's Free Press:

When it comes to prime ministerial visits, Stephen Harper appears to be giving Manitoba the cold shoulder. [...]

Winnipeg South Centre Liberal MP Anita Neville said she believes Harper isn't spending more time in Manitoba because he is focused on potential electoral gains elsewhere in the country.

Neville also wonders if the fact Manitoba has a high aboriginal population may be playing a role in his travels.

This is why Anita Neville has lost all credibility in Winnipeg South Centre. She takes a legitimate issue, such as the PMs travel schedule and turns it into a joke. Instead of using the opportunity to raise issues of local importance, she takes cheap shots at the Prime Minister, and accuses him of being racist.

As the Blonde Conservative points out, there really just isn't much for the Prime Minister to do in Manitoba these days.

If Neville wants to accuse the PM of not caring about Manitoba, fine. But she'd have to ignore the hundreds of millions of dollars that the feds are contributing to the floodway expansion, the human rights museum, and the increased transfers from the Conservatives' last budget.

Labels: Anita Neville, Dirty Liberals, Manitoba, Stephen Harper

Trevor Kennerd announced yesterday that he will be seeking the Conservative nomination for Winnipeg South-Centre (h/t). Winnipeg South-Centre is, of course, the riding of Liberal MP Anita Neville.

Kennerd has several things going for him from the start. Most obviously is his fame in Winnipeg. Kennerd won three Grey Cups with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, during the club's golden years (we used to win championships); including kicking the game winning field-goal in the 1988 Grey Cup.

Kennerd, who has been running a marketing and communications company since retiring from football, would seem to be a natural for politics (link). He's also been a resident of the riding for 26 years, since moving here from Edmonton.

The Winnipeg South-Centre riding has been dominated by the Liberals since the beginning of time, or so it seems. The 2006 election was close in the riding, with Anita Neville winning by less than 8% over Conservative contender Michael Richards (not the racist actor from Seinfeld). Kennerd is more of a working middle class type guy than Michael Richards was. That will resonate more closely with the riding than Richards' slick-city-lawyer personality.

Also working for Kennerd, is the fact that Anita Neville has gotten on the wrong side of constituents of late. She's taken a head-in-sand approach to crime, in a riding with crime problems. She also abstained from voting on a Liberal motion to take business away from Manitoba.

Kennerd even talked about crime at the announcement, something that Anita Neville thinks is, well, criminal. Kennerd acknowldeged a crime problem in the riding, "As a frequent victim of crime, the property crime in the riding is really out of sight." As of posting, there is still no word on when Anita Apology will demand that Kennerd not sully Winnipeg's reputation with such vial accusations.

Kennerd will win the riding, and quite handily I suspect. Anita Apology will go the way of all the other old-tyme Liberals. And good luck to whoever the NDP nominates.

Labels: Anita Neville, Blue Bombers, Conservative Party, politics

The thugs and gangsters really are taking over this fine city of Winnipeg, despite what Anita Neville has to say.

The judicial system in Manitoba has been ruined by social activist judges for years already. Every day you read the paper here, you'll see a killer getting off with time-served, or a serial pedophile recieving house-arrest. All the while, the police are too busy to prevent any crime because they're chasing chronic car thieves all around the city.

The last layer of defense for law-abiding citizens was the Crown, who prosecute criminals. But the thugs and scumbags are starting to undermine that department as well (link):

A senior Crown attorney is under police protection after four men allegedly armed with knives forced their way into the woman's Winnipeg home early Saturday - just hours after she got a phone message saying, "We're going to kill you."

It's an obvious attempt to undermine not just the Crown attorney's who prosecute cases, but the entire justice system. It's a clear message to judges, jurors, and prosecutors alike: "We can get to you".

The likely response in Manitoba will be, "No harm, no foul." Since the woman didn't get hurt, all is well. Unfortunately all is not well. While the woman may be fine physically, she's certainly going to be a little more stressed out on the job now. Particularly when she's prosecuting gang members, and it could easily cause her to slip up in her work.

And affect her work it will, this was no subtle warning to her. The woman has apparently lost her voice from screaming during the incident, and it has yet to return. These weren't street-punks that were sent to her home either, they were experienced criminals.

One of the four suspects, Alphonse Stanley Traverse, has been convicted of manslaughter. While on parole he plead guilty to breaking and entering. He has charges pending of assault and uttering threats and was out on bail at the time of this weekends incident.

Winnipegers might remember Alphonse Traverse from a couple years ago. He's one of those "Worlds Dumbest Criminal" types. He was in the news for breaking into a home and stealing almost $5000 worth of goods. The only problem was, his victim owned a pawn shop, and Traverse tried to sell the stolen goods there. Whoops.

Labels: Anita Neville, Canadian Justice, Manitoba, Winnipeg Crime

Anita Neville is demanding an apology (again). The last time she got so cranky was when somebody pointed out that Winnipeg has a crime problem.

This week Neville's got a beef with Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice.

Prentice said that he hopes $50.8 million in taxpayer grants and contributions to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs isn't used "in planning illegal and disruptive blockades."

"I am prepared to order forensic audits of every organization that participates in blockades and civil disobedience to ensure that monies intended for children were not used to plan these activities," he wrote.

Neville accused Prentice of making threats to "quash the democratic voices" of aboriginals who wish to show their disapproval with the Tory budget.

What Neville doesn't understand, is that some things should not receive government funding, ie. road blocks that damage the economy and property. Do taxpayers pay millions of dollars for highways, just to spend millions more on shutting them down in protest? Hell no! It makes life more difficult for many communities.

It's about time these terror tactics stopped because it's getting out of hand.

• March 2, 2007 - A blockade in Northern Manitoba comes down.


• March 6, 2007 - Railway blockade comes down near Marysville, ON.


• March 13, 2007 - A blockade in Quebec comes down.


• March 23, 2007 - Mohawk protesters blockade a road near Deseronto, ON.


• The occupation in Caledonia has been going on for over a year.

And thats just this month alone!

The standoff in Caledonia has cost Ontario taxpayers over $46 million to date. Dalton McGuinty's pathetic performance on this file is now costing the federal government over $26 million.

Worse than the cost incurred to taxpayers is the message this sends to the citizens of Canada; Justice will not prevail, welfare payments will. When our federal MPs start defending criminal actions, you know there is a problem.

Anita Neville should be turfed in the next election. When problems arise, she sticks her head in the sand. When confronted, she feigns incredible insult and demands apologies. When will she actually stand up for Winnipegers?

Labels: Anita Neville, Canadian Justice, Dalton McGuinty, Dirty Liberals, politics

First Anita Neville got angry because Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said Winnipeg streets "are ruled by guns, gangs and drugs". Neville was quick to demand an apology (link).

Now Councilor Harry Lazarenko, and NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis (aka Judy Alphabet) are demanding an apology from Justice Donald Fraser for his comments about Winnipeg. At a sentencing in Kenora, Justice Fraser said "I am determined we are not going to allow Kenora to drift into the kind of thing we see in the North End of Winnipeg or in the downtown area of Regina."

Though the sentence is fair, the comments surrounding it aren't, said NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North).

"We suffer from a mythology, usually by people who don't know better. This is by someone who should know better.

"It's very hurtful to the people living in the area," she said, adding the judge should apologize.

Veteran city Coun. Harry Lazarenko agrees, calling the comments "baloney" and unfair.

"It gives you a black eye. It's like you're condemned because you're living in the North End. To be lambasted, especially by a judge," said Lazarenko, who's lived in the area for over 50 years.

Well, here's a little FACTUAL information for anybody who's interested, courtesy of the City of Winnipeg's CrimeStat program.

From January 1, to February 20 this year, there had been two homicides in Winnipeg. Where? One in the North End, the other Downtown. Between these two districts, they makeup 100% of homicides in Winnipeg in the year 2007.

For the same time period, there have been 44 sexual assaults in Winnipeg's six districts. Of those 44, 9 were committed in the North End, and 16 Downtown, combining for 56% of sexual assaults in Winnipeg. The two districts also account for 55% of the robberies year-to-date in Winnipeg. Not to mention that Winnipeg is known as the murder capital of Canada (aka Killerpeg).

When two districts that make up approx. 33% of Winnipeg's population, but account for almost 60% of violent crime, it's time to acknowledge a problem exists.

What Anita Neville, Judy Alphabet, and Harry Lazarenko need to understand is that pointing out a problem, although it might be "hurtful to the people living in the area", it's still a fact. And the facts won't change just because you don't walk to talk about it. What's more "hurtful to the people living in the area" than saying mean things about their neighbourhood, is the violent crime that runs rampant in these neighborhoods.

People don't move out of these neighborhoods because some politician said bad things about it, they move because their sick of all the crime that they witness happening around them.

But Judy Alphabet and Anita Neville aren't able to acknowledge the crime problem exists, because they both voted against tough-on-crime measures proposed by the Conservative government. Which is a perfect example of why the NDP and Liberals are unfit to govern in this country. It's time to stop lying.

Labels: Anita Neville, Liberal Party, NDP, politics, Winnipeg Police