On today's show, we have a special guest, Brad Radcliffe, the MP for Saskatoon West, to talk about why violent crime is on the rise just like inflation in Canada, and why we need to do something about it.
00:00:00.000hello and welcome once again to the blueprints this is canada's conservative podcast i'm your
00:00:10.320host jamie schmale member of parliament for halliburton court the likes brock with new
00:00:13.760content for you every single tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time we ask that you like comment subscribe
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00:00:29.600can download it on platforms like cast box itunes google play and spotify on today's show violent
00:00:35.200crime is on the rise just like inflation in canada to talk about this and much much more we have brad
00:00:40.560radicopp the member of parliament for saskatoon west thanks for taking the time great to be here jim
00:00:45.280all right we got some bad news coming out of your riding across the country as well uh violent crime
00:00:50.560is just out of control in your area yeah we're seeing great increases in crime across the board
00:00:56.240in in saskatoon uh of particular concern to us are the homicides last year there were 12
00:01:02.640in total and uh and this year we're on track to exceed that uh we're almost at 12 now and and moving
00:01:10.640forward so it's it's a very big concern particularly in the riding of saskatoon west which i represent
00:01:16.000a lot of the crime seems to be centered in in that area of town and so it's a very big concern for the
00:01:20.720residents that i represent so some stats we have here so since 2015 across canada uh violent crime
00:01:27.280is up 39 murders are up 43 this is just staggering this is incredible that means there are third you
00:01:36.240know if you're talking about uh murders or violent crime there's that many more victims too exactly
00:01:41.520yeah and i mean this is all since trudeau's been in power yeah you know and and there are so many
00:01:45.440things that have been done by this trudeau liberal government that have caused these things to happen and
00:01:51.200this is something that needs to be corrected because we're going in a very bad direction
00:01:54.560right now we need to fix this so why how we've got here what happened well you look back at some
00:01:58.880of the legislation that's been brought in you know c5 is where i think a lot of this started and c5 is
00:02:03.920where we're uh so go back to stephen harper there were a lot of mandatory minimum sentences so you do
00:02:09.200a crime you would be faced with a one-year penalty or two years in jail it was a mandatory thing
00:02:14.640what c5 did was get rid of that in many cases and and the list is staggering like extortion with a
00:02:20.320firearm weapons trafficking possession of a firearm uh possession for purposes of weapons trafficking uh
00:02:26.880traffic trafficking with drugs importing drugs all these things the mandatory minimums were were
00:02:32.720eliminated which means that there's no penalties for some of these crimes right there's no consequences
00:02:37.760from the criminal's perspective the other thing that c5 did was it uh it implemented house arrest
00:02:43.920so you do a severe crime and instead of going to jail you have to go home so you can sit around and
00:02:49.840plan your next right crime and look at the list of these things sexual assault kidnapping um assault
00:02:56.320causing bodily harm or with a weapon assault assaulting a peace officer with a weapon um motor vehicle
00:03:02.480theft these are the things that uh you can now get house arrest for rather than the mandatory minimums
00:03:07.440that we had back before trudeau was here so i mean this is a big part of what's going on and you
00:03:12.640just mentioned reducing the punishment for car theft what is going through the roof in a lot of our
00:03:18.240major cities exactly so so just this is i think how it works so you have uh you know as you know
00:03:24.080inflation is making it very difficult to live in canada right now food costs are high rent costs are
00:03:28.080high so you have a youth maybe this youth is struggling to pay the bills a gang criminal
00:03:33.440organization comes to this youth this youth and says hey could you steal a car for us
00:03:37.920and oh i don't know if i want to do that hey but there's no penalty you won't go to jail there's no
00:03:42.080consequences and by the way we'll give you 500 bucks or whatever to do this and don't worry about
00:03:46.720it like and you can come back next week and do it again and so they do it they commit the crime and
00:03:50.400guess what they they get arrested if they get caught they get arrested and released yeah and the
00:03:54.880and the youth goes oh this is a pretty good deal i think i'll do it again and so so criminal
00:03:58.880organizations take advantage of these relaxations and the rules that the liberals have done just
00:04:03.600exacerbating and making the problem worse and we've even seen in toronto and many other cities
00:04:08.080toronto specifically um people out on bail uh for various consequences but most importantly the the
00:04:16.320violent crime that have committed murder while they are out on on jail we've even had a police officer
00:04:21.040uh killed because somebody was out on bail for violent offenses and and they just keep going
00:04:28.000there's no consequences here it's a revolving door exactly and even if you look into saskatoon
00:04:33.200we've looked into the statistics back from 2020 21 and you'll find that about half of the murder
00:04:39.040people that were charged in murder investigations had some sort of either bail or some other condition
00:04:44.480that they were on at the time so a lot of these people who are who are out on bail or out on
00:04:49.360conditions are re reoffending in some of the worst cases as in murder so it this is a big problem
00:04:56.000let's uh cue up cut one this is from your area saskatoon and uh i'm sure as as our viewers and
00:05:03.280listeners see and listen to this clip it'll it'll hit them that this is also happening in their community
00:05:09.520as well let's play cut one in a report to be presented at the board of police commissioners
00:05:14.560meeting thursday data shows violent crime is up 9.6 percent in 2024 most notably there have been
00:05:22.560nine homicides so far this year six in the first quarter compared to only two the same time last year
00:05:29.200as the city grows we are also seeing a an increase in the number of weapons on the street which
00:05:35.920translates to more violence we're seeing an increase in drug use and individuals in crisis
00:05:43.840more weapons on the street didn't they say banning uh making some of these firearms uh illegal or
00:05:50.080whatever the liberals talking points are would reduce this stuff it's actually going up yeah how's
00:05:54.800that working for you right because criminals don't care no no and they have ways of getting around and
00:05:59.600this is the the fallacy of of what the liberals have done with firearms legislation is that it's really
00:06:04.240penalizing the legal trained safe farmers hunters those are the ones who are being penalized and the
00:06:11.520criminals their business is growing they're doing more and so the firearms legislation is doing nothing
00:06:16.960it's not doing what's meant to do well the liberals know that the people obeying the law are going to
00:06:21.040continue to follow the law right so we'll just crack down on them regardless of whether or not the
00:06:28.080crime rate actually goes down or people are committing less violent acts it doesn't really matter
00:06:32.160because their talking points are we're doing something right exactly and and what they're
00:06:35.840doing is penalizing law-abiding firearms owners and they are doing nothing to stop the crime in fact
00:06:41.120we just heard the police chief there say that violent that gun crimes are up significantly in saskatoon
00:06:46.160so it's it's you know they're they're going in the wrong direction in so many ways well it's easy to
00:06:50.960to put the hammer down on on law-abiding people because as just mentioned they will continue to do that
00:06:56.080right it's a lot harder to to go after the the gangs and the criminals especially when it's it's bail
00:07:03.040not jail and this revolving justice system we have exactly because now you're mentioning c75 which is
00:07:09.360the other piece of legislation that the liberals layered on top of this uh besides the fact that
00:07:14.320they got rid of mandatory minimums and implemented house arrest then they did c75 which which put the
00:07:19.280onus on uh judges and law enforcement to to be uh to not put people in jail at all and so people get
00:07:26.000out on bail for everything now and so this is the revolving door that so many people talk about and and
00:07:30.800we've seen that in saskatoon and across the country where you know often it's a small number of
00:07:35.360criminals who are who are continually uh repeating offenses and and and it's it's just it's ludicency
00:07:43.040it really is well even the justice minister had his car stolen i think three times uh we talked about
00:07:48.720this i i believe with you on on a previous show uh is the fact that it hasn't affected him yet his
00:07:54.960car got stolen but i i believe it in every case it was the government's car right so it affects the
00:08:00.720government's insurance but again that doesn't matter because it's it's not seen it's everybody watching
00:08:05.520us that's paying for that exactly it's not him yeah it's it's not the justice minister who has to
00:08:09.600call the insurance company or deal with the consequences of being cut off if their car keeps
00:08:13.840getting stolen but at the same time it's pretty ironic and quite humorous that that happened
00:08:17.520yeah it's it's it's just unbelievable that uh the the government is is not recognizing the fact that
00:08:24.960a lot of areas it could be an urban center it could be a suburban center or a rural community it doesn't
00:08:30.960matter where you live now this this this problem with crime is growing everywhere it is and you know
00:08:37.360one of the knock-on effects that is i think really concerning to me is you talk to law enforcement
00:08:43.520people today and they're actually their morale is not good because you know if you become a police
00:08:49.280officer you're you want to make the community better safer you know you want to go get the bad guy right
00:08:54.240and you want to put him in jail that's that's the whole purpose of why you become a police officer
00:08:57.520for me in many cases and and what these pieces of legislation have done have taken those tools away
00:09:03.120from police and so they are the ones i mean they see it firsthand yeah they see this person get arrested
00:09:07.840and released and re-offend and release re-offend i mean they see it right up front and that's very
00:09:12.320demoralizing for them because they look at this person for the third or fourth crime and they go
00:09:16.320why even bother bringing him into the station i know he's just going to get out again and and that is
00:09:20.640not where you want that's not the headspace you want your police officers in you want them to be
00:09:24.400motivated to to catch the bad guy yeah absolutely absolutely especially when they see the gang
00:09:29.200situation getting worse right then you go to let's say vancouver for instance and we have a cut here
00:09:34.880we're going to queue up cut two uh we all have heard and i'm sure have read about the the situation
00:09:41.840in vancouver's downtown east side where it's you know widely known that there's open drug use happening
00:09:47.680there um the situation is is getting worse not better thousands of people have died because of
00:09:54.880overdoses and and other uh situations uh maybe we'll play cut to and get your comments all right play cut
00:10:01.760we hit the streets of vancouver friday to find out what was really happening
00:10:09.360we overheard drug dealers shouting dillys the slang word for dilaudid or hydromorphone which is one of
00:10:16.400the drugs the government has encouraged doctors to prescribe as safe supply to those suffering from
00:10:22.320addiction in addition to sellers we had a lot of people ask us if we had dillys appearing to indicate
00:10:29.680an open and robust aftermarket for the powerful opioid if you think back just a few years ago like
00:10:37.3602014 not you know not that long ago this this is totally new yeah i mean it it's it's like a almost
00:10:45.280a movie like something you wouldn't believe would be true and and yet it is in in trudeau's world it
00:10:50.320is true and it's you know they talked about the robust market the aftermarket for uh hydromorphone which
00:10:56.320is which is which is the government's safe supply and they're giving out these free opioid drugs to
00:11:02.880users supposedly to help them uh you know get down or not be so committed to their drugs but what's
00:11:09.120happening and that's what this this uh clip was telling us is they're selling those they're selling
00:11:14.400those drugs which by the way end up in the hands of young people high school students and people who are
00:11:20.000first-time drug users because they're considered kind of a junior drug they use the cash they get from
00:11:24.480that to go and buy the hard drugs and and it just it makes it even worse introducing a whole new group
00:11:29.440of people to drugs it it it opens up that circle right it brings more people into this this downward
00:11:35.840spiral if you're a drug marketer it's a great it's a great solution if you're trying to uh you know stop
00:11:41.360the use of drugs it's not working well so what about our plan what is the conservatives going to do had if
00:11:48.240when we get the opportunity to govern yeah well i mean really there's two things back to the mandatory
00:11:53.680minimums and sentencing we have to restore that we have to make sure that if you if you commit a
00:11:57.840crime particularly a violent crime and especially if you're a repeat offender you need to be in jail
00:12:02.640that's where you need to be you need to come off the street so that there's removing this incentive
00:12:07.040to to continue to repeat crimes we have to we have to fix that on the other hand we do have people who
00:12:12.320really do suffer with addictions issues and we have to make sure that we have proper treatment
00:12:15.840centers in place for that and right now there isn't enough treatment in canada there aren't enough beds
00:12:20.720we need to fix that we need to we need to know that if if a person needs to know that if he has
00:12:24.880an addiction issue he has a place to go right he or she has a place to go and solve that problem and
00:12:29.520and that's something that that we're very committed to doing i i think absolutely that's an important
00:12:34.240piece the the the treatment issue that really doesn't get talked about a lot especially uh in liberal and
00:12:40.800ndp circles the they never really focus in on the fact that we should be really trying to get people off
00:12:48.960this horrible addiction and back to back to their lives well and that's where this concept of safe
00:12:54.560supply comes from and the the bigger concept of of harm reduction and and there's there's sort of two
00:13:01.360schools of thought there the one is the on the safe supply harm reduction side is you know give them
00:13:05.920what they need make it safe so they're not having bad drugs give them give them those hard drugs but
00:13:11.440but clean ones that we'll give you for free uh and then you know they won't harm themselves even though
00:13:16.320they're still addicted to drugs you know whatever the other approach is is more of an abstinence
00:13:20.720approach like get off the drugs and i think what's what we're seeing play out on our streets today is
00:13:26.800not that all of harm reduction is bad because there are some there are some good pieces to harm reduction
00:13:31.040but but we're obviously not doing it right because because as we have uh multiplied efforts the current
00:13:36.640government has has jumped you know big time into the concept of harm reduction things have gotten worse
00:13:42.560we've seen the numbers and so so clearly whatever it's supposed to do we're not doing it right and
00:13:47.040we've completely forgotten about the other side of this which is the abstinence side and sometimes
00:13:51.200that is the right solution even though it's the hard solution but it is the it's the solution that
00:13:55.200provides the permanent results and you have a wide range of why people get addicted in the first
00:13:59.920place right it could be over dependence on pain medication after surgery it could be a whole slew of
00:14:04.640things but at the same time if we look at some of the stats coming out recently talking about people
00:14:11.120losing hope in getting a home or finding a job that has a a wage that pays them the ability to live
00:14:19.280right it it it kind of hurts people mentally and mental health crisis is up right there this this
00:14:27.840this vision justin trudeau has for canada is actually causing misery for people exactly and and
00:14:33.760sometimes you know you have to get back to what are the root causes of some of these things and and
00:14:37.680it might be as simple as a job as as being able to buy groceries as being able to sleep you know in
00:14:43.760a in your own place you know we hear stories of students especially young people who are living
00:14:47.440five six ten people in a two-bedroom apartment because they they just have no other option and and
00:14:52.800you you put in that kind of an environment then you throw mental health comes to play and then you
00:14:58.240throw free drugs into that and then you throw the lack of any punishment i mean it just kind of
00:15:02.480snowball so sometimes we have to go you know i think we have to go back to the beginning and
00:15:06.000we have to fix our economy we have to get our economy growing so that we can uh we can have
00:15:10.880jobs for this growth in our in our in our economic output as a country we have to we have to balance our
00:15:16.000budget so that we can stop inflation and and and get prices where they need to be so people can afford
00:15:20.800to feed themselves absolutely and you actually raise a good point because i think this is one of the
00:15:25.360many stark differences between conservatives and liberals liberals and ndp-ers will start the clock now right like
00:15:31.760we have a crisis people are or can't afford to to eat heat that kind of thing um but conservatives
00:15:39.440will actually look back because liberal solution is another government program right that needs to
00:15:43.920be funded somehow right right now on the credit card uh conservatives will look a few steps back
00:15:49.360to see how we got here so we can address the issue so that the problems don't occur in the future or
00:15:55.520stop occurring and that to me is leadership yeah and we see this so often jamie where where this
00:16:00.960government will bring in some legislation they will not at all think of the consequences right
00:16:05.280and so they'll bring in the legislation and then a few months later uh something will happen and
00:16:09.360they'll go oh never thought of that maybe we should do something different right so 100 like we i think
00:16:14.640conservatives generally are uh more bigger picture thinkers we want to get to the root causes and
00:16:20.320actually go back and fix those issues and i think i think some of those fundamentally and even in the
00:16:25.280problem we're having with crime and drugs fundamentally come back to some of the economic issues that's right and if we don't fix those economic issues
00:16:28.960that's right and if we don't fix those economic issues then we we don't have a foundation upon which
00:16:33.520to fix the other issues that are compounding from that and we look at what we pay on interest in the debt
00:16:39.520more than transfers to the provinces for health care in a health care crisis right right just wasted money
00:16:45.040exactly because of this liberal government right and it's something we can't control i mean the right
00:16:49.040the interest rate tells us how much we have to pay that's not something we can say i don't want to pay
00:16:52.480that we have to pay that yeah and it it's very tough when you're wasting was it 54 billion dollars
00:16:58.880a year on on interest yes think of all the stuff we could be doing with that money yes it's absolutely
00:17:03.760incredible uh brad we're pretty much out of time as you know the guests get the last word the floor is
00:17:08.400yours well you know thank you for having me on here we absolutely have a big problem to fix here and
00:17:13.680the good news is that conservatives have the plan and so you know in terms of crime we really have to
00:17:18.480get back to where where criminals face consequences and and make the make the better decisions to not
00:17:23.920commit those crimes in the first place and for those who have have suffered with addiction issues
00:17:28.640we need to we need to have treatment options to fit to help them to to get cured of those issues
00:17:32.640and so you know i look forward to the future i think i think we'll have a very uh robust we will
00:17:37.600have a very robust plan and hopefully sooner rather than later we'll have an election to to start
00:17:42.160fixing these i sure hope so hope is around the corner hopefully you bet brad radicott member of
00:17:47.120parliament for saskatoon west appreciate your time thanks appreciate yours as well don't forget
00:17:51.360we'll have new content for you every single tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time without well throughout the
00:17:55.920summer we do not stop we do not slow down because that liberal agenda is always moving we must combat
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