Image Credit: X / Frank Caputo

By James Peters

Two and Out

PETERS: ‘Tough on crime’ Caputo straddles line between smart politics, partisan rage baiting

Mar 22, 2024 | 12:30 PM

‘TOUGH ON CRIME’ is a winning political strategy.

Whatever your place on the political spectrum, you will typically agree with some basic statements about crime: there is too much of it and those who are caught doing it are treated too well.

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo, a former prosecutor, is well-positioned to make this a signature issue.

A couple of weeks ago, he posted a video describing what he saw during a tour of La Macaza Institution, which is about a two-hour drive northwest of Montreal.

Like any good Hollywood movie, the video is more concerned with telling a story that leaves its audience with a certain impression than it is with a strict adherence to factual accuracy.

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Caputo’s claims about who and what he saw during his tour were promptly clarified by Corrections Canada.

His encounters with Paul Bernardo and Luka Magnotta may not be completely inaccurate, but it seems they may have been played up for dramatic effect.

The MP, though, maintains he saw what — and who — he saw.

Some are describing Caputo’s video as an example of rage farming. It may be a new term, but it’s a tactic as old as time — manipulating or exaggerating a story in order to make people angry. Politicians do it all the time.

Whatever the MP is doing, there is both good value to Canadians and naked partisan ambition in it.

Most of us will never see the inside of a prison, so our image of a prison is shaped by Hollywood movies — all concrete and iron, shivs and menace and fear.

Just the right place for brutal killers like Bernardo and Magnotta.

Remember what we said about those Hollywood movies? Many of them want to paint a fanciful picture rather than take a photo.

Trying to debunk that image is in Canadians’ interest.

The partisan ambition part is trying to pin blame for a supposedly lenient corrections system solely on Justin Trudeau.

The supposedly cushy lives of convicted killers can be credited to many successive governments and decisions of an independent judiciary.

There is only so much Trudeau or Poilievre or any prime minister can do to make the punishment for those killers harsher.

‘Tough on crime’ is a great look for a politician, but it’s a whole lot harder to put into practice.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.