Irvin Waller called attention to the conclusions from the World Health Organization and the UN in a 30 minutes presentation to the Minister, chief justices, correctional and police leaders. He cited the scientific evidence that programs addressing risk factors have reduced crime and prevented violence. He explained the importance of a strong municipal role in achieving crime reduction outcomes.
Irvin Waller showed the disturbing evidence on the continuing prevalence and impact of crime on Canadians. He called attention to the spike in gang homicides that demonstrated the failure of over-reliance on the criminal code and spiking police budgets to control street violence.
He called for greater use of the 4th R as the only program proven to reduce violence against women, which he considers a major challenge to Canadians. He called for much wider use of known successes at the provincial level without needing to wait for the results of the federal research and development program.
Canada is fortunate to have a national municipal network for crime prevention formed by more than a dozen major cities. The National Crime Prevention Centre has been slow to approve administratively the next stages but federal-municipal partnerships should be complementary to those provinces who want to get on with the work of stopping violence.
