Canada: A Haven for Criminals? Hazel McCallion Senior Public School
By Emily Heenan, Grade 8
What is happening to our world? Is it a place where you can brutally murder someone and be out of jail in a few years? A place where people are terrified to go out at night because of the danger of being assaulted or even murdered? Surely it’s time for us to tighten our laws. How many people must lose their lives before we realize that our laws are too lenient? After watching the news for one night, I realized that something about our laws just isn't working. Our country is full of crime and dangerous offenders, waiting to prey on another victim. Something must be done immediately. According to the Charter of Rights, everyone has the right to life and liberty and not to be arbitrarily detained. When someone takes these rights away from an innocent person, they don’t deserve those rights anymore. They shouldn’t have any rights and they should be happy that they still have the right to life. When criminals go to jail, it is their punishment for their crimes. These days, you’d think that it was a cheap vacation! In jail, luxuries should not even exist -- no TV, no nice meals, no computers or radios. It should be an almost unbearable experience so that it would give these criminals what they deserve and would make sure that they never committed another crime again. When a repeat violent criminal is let out of jail, that puts the public at risk. It is not fair to put us in danger like that without our input. The family and friends of the victim are particularly at risk because often, criminals hold grudges against the people who were close to the victim. When someone commits a violent crime more than once, they should be put in jail for life so that they can’t hurt anyone else. These criminals have hurt, or even killed, innocent people. They ruin the lives of others so how can anyone feel any sympathy for them? They deserve far worse than what they are getting here in Canada. Something needs to be done.
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