Half-Baked
Isn't it just like government to take a good idea then only run 1/2 way with it:
Victims to be better compensated by province
Last updated May 9 2006 08:33 PM EDT CBC News
The Charest government plans to improve benefits to victims of violent crime.
Yvon Marcoux says new laws address the future, not the past.Justice Minister Yvon Marcoux presented Bill 25, which contains the first amendments to victims of crime compensation in more than three decades.
Public compensation for crime victims was introduced in Quebec in 1972. The law hasn't been touched since.
Changes will allow some relatives of kidnapping and murder victims to claim the cost of therapy. And funeral coverage goes from $600 to $3,000.
Marcoux says that amount has been frozen for 34 years, and that from now on, it will keep pace with the cost of living.
"For the future, this amount will be indexed. It is provided in the bill that the $3,000 will be annually indexed so it will keep pace with inflation," Marcoux said Tuesday.
Marcoux says a ministerial bylaw will eventually establish other compensation amounts, but that none of the new benefits will come into effect until after the bill is adopted and becomes law.
Past crimes not eligible
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu has been fighting for better coverage for victims' families since his daughter, Julie Bienvenu, was killed in 2002.
He argues retroactive compensation should be made available to families affected by past crimes.
"They're still in pain, they still need followup, they still need [a] psychologist's help," Boisvenu said of the victims' families.
However, the justice minister says Boisvenu's request will not be granted. He says new laws address the future and can't undo the past.
posted by John Allore @ 5/21/2006 09:52:00 AM
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