Sex offender cuts political: Cotler
Veteran Liberal MP charges programs axed to ‘energize’ Conservative base
The federal government cut funding to a program that helps to prevent sex offenders from reoffending after their release from prison because it would rather energize its core supporters than protect the public, says Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.
Cotler, a former justice minister in Paul Martin’s Liberal government, put more than 60 questions on the order paper about the decision to end funding to virtually all Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) programs effective last March 31.
CoSA programs, operating in many cities, including Ottawa, use circles of volunteers who meet regularly with sex offenders after their release, hold them accountable, and help them to safely reintegrate into their communities.
Among other things, Cotler wanted to know why almost all CoSA funding was cut, what evaluations were done of the cuts’ impact, and what other programs the government funds to help sex offenders after their release from prison.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s answers were tabled just before Parliament rose on Friday. To say they did not respond directly to Cotler’s questions would be an understatement.
Blaney began his brief response by declaring that the government “believes that dangerous sex offenders belong behind bars.” He went on to highlight a number of tough-on-crime measures the government has adopted while in office.
The only thing that addressed any of Cotler’s many questions was Blaney’s statement that the Correctional Service of Canada has a contract with the Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario to provide CoSA services in southern Ontario until March 31, 2018, at an annual cost of $350,000.
In an interview, Cotler said Blaney’s response was part of a pattern. Answers to order paper questions have become abbreviated, have evolved into non-answers, and substituted opinion and argument for information, Cotler said.
The decision to end funding to most CoSA projects “doesn’t make any sense on the merits,” said Cotler, who is not running for re-election.
A study by the Church Council on Justice and Corrections found that sex offenders who joined CoSA programs after serving their sentences were 75 per cent less likely to re-offend in the following five years than those not under CoSA supervision, Cotler noted.
The study also concluded that for every dollar spent on CoSA programs, the government saves $4.60 in costs related to crime.
“Even from a cost point of view, (CoSA) is more cost efficient and cost effective,” Cotler said. “What we’re going to have is less rehabilitation of the offender and less protection for the community.”
Instead, the Conservatives have calculated that cutting a program that supports convicted sex offenders will help to “energize” their base, Cotler said. “It’s a very cynical way of governance and, regrettably, something that runs against the very things that they contend they’re doing — namely, that they’re protecting society. They are not.”
Correctional Services has said CoSA funding was ended because the department isn’t responsible for offenders who are released after serving their full sentences.
But Cotler called that a mistaken rationale, saying that at this point, most sex offenders are released into the community with no formal supervision.
“One would think that ought to concern Public Safety,” he said. “And particularly, it ought to concern a government that says it is acting in the name of public safety.”
It’s a very cynical way of governance and, regrettably, something that runs against the very things that they contend they’re doing — namely, that they’re protecting society. They are not.