Conservatives Don't Understand Freedom

[mbarrick]

When you pick up a gun and commit a crime you lose your right to be free.

From now on the justice system will stop giving you the benefit of the doubt and send you to jail for a long time.

— Stephen Harper

Nice sentiment, sure to get support from the backwater rednecks and easily the panicked sorts that elect these fascists.

What they are talking about here, hiding it behind the newspeak "reverse onus", is eliminating the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and replacing it with a presumption of guilt. Much like the Americans doing away with habeas corpus, this flies in the face of the fundamental qualities that differentiate free countries from authoritarian tyrannies.

Section 11(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states states pretty damn clearly: "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".

Comments

[dream-king.livejournal.com]

You are right on all 3 counts, however, given the bleeding heart judicial system that we have, one has to have other options.

If not capital punishment, then at least allow for consecutive jail terms instead of the current, concurrent which makes a joke of it all, all for true life sentences, such that the only time the person will be out of jail is when s/he literally breaths his/her last breath.