03 Jun Leaders agree: punishment first, trial later–feedback

Contrarian reader M. Larusic thinks the Alice-in-Wonderland justice dispensed under the Safer Communities and Neighborhoods Act is but the tip of an iceberg that includes the Tory plan for youth curfews.

Both are part of a worrisome trend to right wing politics at its worst. Two of the three candidates answered that they had enough confidence in the legal system and policing that they were not concerned with any possible abuses. One would expect such confidence to make such policies redundant.

This trend is all about policing and little about law…. Last night’s responses from Nova Scotia party leaders were cowardly, not coy, in their lack of any significant response. It was an antiseptic debate, a “Saltscapes” version of politics in Atlantic Canada: no fish guts on these wharves. The three party leaders appeared to be receiving their First Communion—absurdly meek and devoid of any semblance of character, good or bad.