GOVERNMENT SETTING PRICE TAG FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY
(Queen’s Park) – In today's QP Former Solicitor General and Ontario P.C. House Leader, Bob Runciman, called on Attorney General Michael Bryant to stop plans to allow hired organized crime hitmen to buy themselves lighter sentences with money from proceeds of crime.
Runciman was responding to media reports that the Crown has agreed to a $2.5 million payment to a victim of a botched organized crime hit in a busy Toronto restaurant, leaving the victim paralyzed for life.
“This is a horrible precedent that in effect, sets a price tag for criminal activity,” Runciman charged. “The victim was given a life sentence by contract killers, and now the government is prepared to put these same cold blooded hitmen back on the street in a few short years!”
The Attorney General refused to comment on the situation claiming he couldn't interfere with the plea bargaining process. The Tory House Leader pointed out that last year, during the shooting spree in Toronto, Bryant had boasted about providing direction to Crowns to oppose bail on all gun crime charges. "Now in a plea bargain dealing with the dirtiest of thugs, contract killers, he can't interfere!" said Runciman. “This is a dangerous abdication of responsibility,” Runciman continued
Runciman called on the government to change legislation governing the Criminal Injury Compensation Board to permit appropriate assistance to victims of crime. The Fund currently sits with a $40 million surplus and a 10, 000 case backlog.
“This would be a much better way to proceed instead of negotiating one-off deals with the most vicious of criminals,” he concluded.
