The Canada Federation Candidate is qualified and will deliver on his Justice Ministry’s’ objectives for Canada because:
Mr. Chamas has over 25 years of experience in Justice issues and exploring new ways of changing our justice system that serves our citizens and country more effectively.
Mr. Chamas spent many years with Justice workers internationally and within Canada on alternative methods that could improve our system.
Mr. Chamas understands that there are many faults in the system that fails our minority populations as well as mainstream citizens. We must commit ourselves to finding those alternatives to improve our treatment and methods of reintegration and reunification with their communities.
Mr. Chamas recognizes that the system in place appears to be discriminatory in the methods and practices it utilizes that are not responsive to the changing needs and challenges facing the citizens within the system.
Canadian justice seems to be failing in a number of aspects. Recidivism is at a high level, while the system is slow, inefficient and costly.
“Groundbreaking new statistical research confirms the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent warnings that the nation’s $11-billion criminal justice system is riddled with unnecessary delays, inefficient practices and inadequate resources.” National Post quoting study by Macdonald-Laurier Institute”
“The findings reveal extraordinary crime rates in some jurisdictions, poor rates for solving crimes in others, inadequate support for victims, soaring costs, excessive delays, large numbers of cases stayed or withdrawn and high rates of aboriginal incarceration.”
We must look at these issues seriously and make the changes necessary to be more responsive and effective. We can see with certain provincial studies, they have implemented more community-based sentences and the recidivism rate has decreased.
When looking at reasons for re-offending, the highest risks are associated with those who have certain factors: anti-social attitudes, anti-social peers, anti-social personality pattern, history of anti-social behavior, family/marital factors, education/employment factors, lack of pro-social leisure activities, and substance abuse.
How can we meet these needs at the community level as part our reintegration process and prevent future crime? In fact, we should be looking at justice in the prevention mind-set and offer programs that will help those in a practical way to change this risk factors before crime becomes an option.
There are many examples for alternative justice methods that we must be open to applying into our system to make it more relevant and relatable to our citizens. In doing so, we will be more responsive to the need and challenges facing our communities and nation as a whole.
Canada Federation is committed to a new outlook toward our Justice Ministry. This fresh approach will take into consideration the Supreme Court’s findings and recommendations. We will implement a Provincial round table to gather current information on the individual challenges facing each jurisdiction and its levels of justice administration. Armed with this relevant information we can build the framework for a new Justice system brought into the 21st century and that is reflective of our changing needs.