From: brewnoserii@gmail.com   
      
   Damn the courts and judges - again.  You'd have thought he'd learned . . . .   
   _________________________   
      
   TORONTO -- The Conservatives pledged Thursday to introduce another mandatory   
   minimum sentence if they're re-elected, this time for serious fraud.   
      
   The party has long portrayed itself as tough on crime, introducing or   
   increasing various so-called mandatory minimums even as the courts have struck   
   down some as unconstitutional.   
      
   Finance Minister Joe Oliver said a Conservative government would introduce a   
   two-year, mandatory minimum sentence for financial fraud over $5,000 with   
   multiple victims, unless the offender pays full restitution.   
      
   Oliver was standing in for Stephen Harper, who had no public events as he   
   prepared for Friday's French-language leaders' debate in Montreal.   
      
   Oliver, speaking at a Toronto geriatric hospital, says the law is aimed at   
   those who perpetrate fraud against seniors.   
      
   "We will ensure that our laws and law enforcement agencies are able to keep   
   pace with the ways criminals are attempting to defraud our seniors," Oliver   
   said.   
      
   The Conservatives would also increase resources for the Canadian Anti-Fraud   
   Centre to focus on Internet-based fraud against seniors, he said.   
      
   The announcement was one of two highly targeted Conservative pledges on   
   Thursday. Former MP Stockwell Day and candidate Dianne Watts, the former mayor   
   of Surrey B.C., went to that city -- recently racked by a spate of gun   
   violence -- to promise to create    
   a formal list of criminal gangs, as well as spend $2.5 million more a year on   
   efforts to steer teens away from gang activity.   
      
   The Conservative mandatory minimum sentences have covered drug and gun crimes,   
   as well as some sex offences and have come in for criticism by opposition   
   parties and human rights groups.   
      
   Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to explore whether a   
   drug possession mandatory minimum is constitutional. It has already struck   
   down another mandatory minimum for gun crimes.   
      
   The gang announcement in Surrey drew scornful comment from Garry Begg, a   
   former Mountie and now NDP candidate in the neighbouring riding of   
   Fleetwood-Port Kells.   
      
   He said the announcement comes after years of Conservative foot-dragging on   
   crime and a series of clawbacks from the RCMP budget.   
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)