Agriculture This Week-Time to address the reasons of rural crime

The issue of rural crime has become a definite hot button issue in Saskatchewan.

So it’s no surprise the provincial government went to work trying to figure out how to deal with the concerns of the public.

The results of those efforts were recently unveiled by Justice Minister Gord Wyant when he announced a $5.9-million investment aimed at reducing rural crime.

The new provincial Protection and Response Team (PRT) — launched after a review of rural crime by a caucus committee on crime reduction — will be made up of 258 armed officers across Saskatchewan.

One would hope the government might have come up with something a bit more innovative in response to the issue. Instead the answer they came up with was a rather knee jerk reaction of more policing.

The plan includes Saskatchewan conservation officers and commercial vehicle enforcement officers being able to arrest and detain suspects as part of a new PRT. This is actually an element of the program which has merit, and thankfully it has been stated these officers will be given additional training given their expanded responsibilities.

In addition to forming the provincial enforcement team, the committee recommended the government review the legislation that prevents two or more rural municipalities from jointly administering alternative policing programs, and to lobby Ottawa to strengthen the Youth Criminal Justice Act with a view to both increasing consequences and rehabilitation support for offenders.

The lobby effort is another oft suggested solution. There is certainly a place for criminals to be punished, but the suggestion harsher penalties have much effect in reducing crime seems rather limited.

So the PRT will be largely punitive in nature, which misses a rather important aspect of the issue of rural crime, the root causes.

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations vice chief Kimberly Jonathan said Wednesday in a Saskatoon Star Phoenix article that not only does the PRT seem to be “more punitive than it would be preventative,” the caucus committee’s final report does not include any of the eight recommendations submitted in January 2017 by the FSIN’s justice secretariat.

“If you want to check off a box, check off a box and don’t waste our time by giving us hope,” said Jonathan, who has long advocated for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to find common ground. That means funding programs that encourage conversations and address poverty and other social problems rather than making arrests, she told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix in March. 

The issues of rural crime are of course not simple to categorize as many things influence the situation.

Rural depopulation makes the entire region more attractive to those wanting to commit robbery, or vandalism.

And aging population is more likely to be targets of crime, and they have a heightened awareness of the threat.

Then there are influences of racism, which we like to think are less prevalent here, but have long existed under the surface, and in the current world atmosphere are slithering back into the light.

Groups such as The Soldiers of Odin Canada, which has a foothold in Saskatchewan, and the recently formed Canadian Nationalist Party (CNP) with its Saskatchewan leader Travis Patron do not help the situation.

The CNP are against homosexuality, which makes as much sense as being against people with red hair or that are left-handed. They also want to eliminate the minimum wage which will certainly help the economic future of our poor. They also want relaxed gun laws and a nationalist militia. The overtones of such policy only serve to feed the growing tensions revolving around race and economic disparity.

The PRT is a step perhaps, but falls well short of addressing the root of rural crime today. 

Calvin Daniels is Editor of Yorkton This Week.