mandatory minimum sentences

Behind the Conservatives’ rallying call to put more criminals in jail for longer

Pope Francis drops an (accidental) f-bomb and frightening stats on beard transplants

Robert Gillen, who retired last spring after a 33-year career as a Crown prosecutor in British Columbia, isn’t what you’d call soft on crime. Among the many bad guys he put behind bars is, for example, John Horace Oughton, the so-called “paper bag rapist,” convicted in 1987 for a string of sexual assaults in B.C., and still serving an indefinite prison term as a dangerous offender.

The crime rate is down but police forces are growing. We’re poorer as a result, but not necessarily any safer.

With Canada’s crime rate at its lowest since the 1970s, why is the government spending more money on throwing people in jail?