635...NCAA Accepts First Canadian School

Ah, another sign of the impending doom and end of Canadian culture and blah blah blah.

Or, perhaps, they just wanted to save money on travel.

Either way, Sports Illustrated reports that Simon Fraser University in suburban Vancouver has been admitted on probation to the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division II. This is not the big time, populated by schools such as Notre Dame, Washington, Syracuse but it is the NC2A.

Here is what SI had to say:

A new option emerged on July 10, when the NCAA’s Division II admitted its first non-U.S. school, Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C., for a transitional period with the ability to become a full member in 2012-13. Division II made the decision to geographically balance its membership, particularly in the West generally and in the Northwest for football. For now, neither Division I nor Division III is considering opening its membership internationally, and with only a handful of Canadian schools considering Division II, the concept of a North American Collegiate Athletic Association is far-fetched.

But, but and but. The process that made this happen was the attempt by the University of British Columbia to join the NCAA a few years ago. UBC wants in the NCAA Division I to play in the Pacific Athletic Conference, the PAC 10, against schools such as Stanford, Washington, UCLA and USC. Their reasoning is two fold. First off, it is much cheaper to go from Van to Seattle, Palo Alto, LA than from Van to Saskatoon, Brandon and Thunder Bay. Secondly, if one buys into the fact that one of the prime reasons for big time athletics is to raise the profile of the school, playing against Stanford, Washington et. al. on TV has exponentially more value than playing Brandon in a half empty gym that may or may not even make the student paper.

This is not the end of university sports in Canada per se but it could be the end of the CIS, Canadian Interscholastic Sports and, frankly, that is a good thing.

It is fashionable to hate on the United States for sure but the fact of the matter is the CIS has nothing approaching Title IX, which is a gender equity law passed in 1972 and is why women's sports have exploded in the last three decades nor does the CIS publish graduation rates. The NCAA has both.

WFDS

378...Conservative Get Tough Crime Laws Cheered

David Karp in this morning's edition of the Vancouver Sun writes that a majority of British Columbians approve of what federal Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada Rob Nicholson and the Tory government are planning to do to fight crime.


You know, stiffer sentences and all that.


Like they have in the States.


The crime free United States.

No surprise here.


An Angus Reid Strategies poll found that a majority of Canadians supported including all sex offenders in the national sex-offender registry, ending conditional sentences for non-personal injury crimes, and implementing mandatory minimum sentences. Throw in ending the faint hope clause that gives convicted murders a chance to get out early, not that early of course, they still have to serve 15 years, but earlier and you have the kit.

Simon Fraser University criminology professor Neil Boyd said he wasn’t surprised by the results. “It’s quite discouraging, because the best available evidence doesn’t support any of [the Conservatives’] initiatives,” he said. “I think what it reveals is the fact that we have really not educated the Canadian public about evidence-based social policy in the realm of crime and justice.” The majority is high, 82 per cent in British Columbia for example.

Here is why the policy/policies are 1/ popular and 2/fail miserably. They are popular because God fearing, hard working, non criminal types, who don't break the law, really, really wouldn't break the law if the penalty was higher than it is today. They fail because, instead of reducing crime they reduce the amount of people who are willing to take the risk associated with being a criminal and select out those who are smarter. Smarter people have options, they can run a grow op or use their education to make something of themselves in a non criminal world. If you make the penalty for running a grow op prohibitive the smart criminals will de criminalize. But the demand will remain and that void will be filled by individuals who are less intelligent and not deterred, probably not aware even, of the mandatory sentences and what not.

Plus, it doesn't work. We have many American jurisdictions that have severe penalties for drugs and still have the plague of drugs. Mayor Michael Bradley of Sarnia, Ontario, made that very point on yesterday's The Point [CBC One] when discussing this very issue. He pointed out that Michigan has super tough drug laws, mandatory sentences and so on and a severe, non relenting drug problem. He also, and here is a guy who has been mayor of his border town since the 1980's, is on the Police Services board, is a pretty even dude, he also pointed out that the never ending war on drugs is expensive, uses up tons of police resources and is futile.

Bottom line is these get tough laws look great on paper but reality shows that they are anything but.

WFDS