This posting’s title copies the Toronto Star’s Thursday, October 8 editorial heading commenting on Stephen Harper’s negative politicization of the niqab.

Another example that fits under the same banner is the juxtaposition of two items from the same newspaper:
Catherine Latimer is a former director general in the justice department and a Broadbent Institute fellow. Her op-ed piece in the Sunday, October 4 edition titled, “The making of a prison crisis”, begins, “Yesterday’s flawed ‘tough on crime’ policies are today’s prison crisis.”, and ends, “Our prisons are now in crisis, but if we surmount ‘touch on crime’ approaches and focus on just, effective and humane responses, Canada can once again be a world leader in corrections.” In between, she underscores how the current government’s mean-spirited stupidity for the sake of political expediency, coupled with a gullible and trusting public, is resulting in dangerous prison environments and lower community security.

A few days later on Wednesday, October 7, the paper ran Michael S. Schmidt’s piece from the New York Times, “6,000 inmates to be released from U.S. prisons.” The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to release these inmates at the end of October from federal institutions, a part of the rollback from harsh penalties for non-violent drug offences from the American experiment with a ‘tough on crime’ agenda in the 1980s and 90s, now involving about 50,000 inmates who will qualify for release.

We’ve said it before. We’ll say it again. Canada’s going where others have been and failed, where human and financial costs are unwarranted, and where Stephen Harper and the members of his Conservative caucus can make no excuses. Low? They lead the way.