Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says repeat car thieves should not be allowed to serve their sentence “in their living room watching Netflix.”
Poilievre released a new policy today that insists the current Liberal government goes too easy on people who steal cars.
He says a Conservative government would make sure auto thieves spend at least three years in prison if they are convicted for a third time, and ban house arrest for those convicted of an indictable offence.
Indictable offences are the ones prosecutors consider to be more serious crimes.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada says auto theft has become a national crisis, with more than 200 vehicles stolen on average every day.
Trudeau's "mismanagement has allowed organized crime to take over the operations and the running of our federal ports and use them to transport cars stolen in places like Brampton to the Middle East, to Africa and to parts of Europe," Polievre said.
The Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada said his proposed policy of “jail before bail” doesn’t remove the presumption innocence of repeat offenders, whom he says have track records of previous “violent crimes.”
The Liberals are hosting an auto theft summit in Ottawa on Feb. 8 to work with police, border agents and auto industry executives to try and address the problem.
"Justin Trudeau's reckless policies have allowed car thefts to explode in our communities, and his only action to fix the mess he created is to hold a summit," Poilievre said in a statement.
"Canadians don't need another summit, they need a common sense plan to stop the theft and end the crime."
