What follows is a letter that I have written and mailed to the each member of the Senate. While it's Conservative heavy these days, I hope to tilt the scales somewhat.
To the Right Honorable Member of the Senate,
To the Right Honorable Member of the Senate,
On
September 9, 2009 I awoke to hear my wife screaming. She was being attacked by
a young man who had wandered into our home intoxicated. He had armed himself
with a knife from our kitchen and when my wife went to the bathroom he stabbed
her behind her left knee, opening an artery and severing a nerve cluster.
I
ran downstairs to her aid, chased the attacker out, preformed First Aid on my
wife, and called 911. We were quite fortunate for the quick response of the
paramedics; transporting her to the hospital quickly enough for the surgeons to
perform the delicate art of repairing the wound. Today my wife is completing a
diploma of fine arts at a local community college and, while she now has a
permanent disability due to the attack she suffered, she leads a full life and
contributes greatly to the community.
I
write this to you now as I have since been employed at a Community Residence
Facility under the Salvation Army, a half-way house for men who are on parole.
As such I believe I have special insight into our criminal justice system
having seen it through the eyes of a victim as well as one who, as part of the
system, has built relationships with men who have committed offences similar to
what I have described to you above.
Mostly
I write this to you as I am scared as to the direction our country is taking
when it shifts the emphasis of criminal justice from rehabilitative to
punitive. I have been following much of the coverage surrounding Bill C-10 and
I do not believe that it will make anyone in Canada safer. The usage of
mandatory minimum sentences will only make for first time offenders to be
further immersed into criminal culture which will make their reentry to civil
society that much more challenging. In my time at the Salvation Army I have
seen that it is those associations that are formed in prison that ultimately
derail the good intentions of a parolee, and that more time in prison will only
strength those ties.
While
I may have been the victim of a crime, I am well aware that Canada’s overall
crime rate has been dwindling for 30 years. Why we would choose to invest in
the construction of more prisons is a particularly bitter sting for me as, in
the aftermath of the attack, I did not feel that my government was there for
me. They had helped us to physically survive, but my wife was to start classes
at the University of Victoria on September 10th, as callous as this may sound
the attack cost us her student loans. She did not qualify for any EI and I was
making too much money for welfare. Too much money for welfare was around 1600
dollars a month, not enough to support two people in the city of Victoria. We
survived by charity – a humbling place for newlyweds to begin. Ten billion
dollars pumped into a safety-net for victims would have gone a long way for us.
At
this point I would highly recommend that you take the opportunity to review the
report Shifting the Conversation, recently issued by the office of the Federal
Ombudsman for Victims of Crime which, as an overall document, I endorse;
especially the part around financial support for the victim.
I
would like to end this letter with what of what my wife said to her attacker as
part of her victim impact statement: “I hope your time in prison will be one of
growth and fruitful soul searching.” Is this not what we have penitentiaries
for? To give men the opportunity that they may repent, and return to us as
healed individuals? Should not this be the ideal that our country aspires to? I
do not see these ideals represented in Bill C-10. I see it costing us more both
fiscally and morally. I implore you, as our sober second thought, let it not
pass.
Sincerely,
Matthew Cook
