Government wants to throw away key for ‘most heinous’ offenders: MacKay

OTTAWA – Criminals in Canada who are convicted of the worst crimes — multiple murders or repeated sexual assaults on children, for instance — could spend their entire lives behind bars under planned federal legislation.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay says such offenders would never be eligible for parole.

MacKay says the forthcoming provisions, promised in this week’s throne speech, would be applied very narrowly to offenders who have committed the most heinous, multiple violent crimes.

MacKay acknowledges there are already tools — such as the dangerous offender designation — to ensure some criminals never walk the streets again.

But he says the government wants to ensure there are no loopholes in the law that criminals can exploit.

Neil Boyd, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, says the planned law will not make society safer, but appeals to angry voters who demand harsher punishment for criminals.