HUNTER: Will junk justice be Mark Carney and Liberals' soft underbelly?

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The double murder of Edmonton criminal Harpreet Uppal and his 11-year-old son Gavin “sent shockwaves” around the country in November 2023.

Those reverberations were not felt in Ottawa — even though the slayings ticked a slew of boxes. Guns. Drugs. Easy Bail. So far, there have been no arrests.

Eight hundred homicides or so later, the Liberal retreads are asking us to forget the last blood-soaked decade and all their missteps and starry-eyed virtue-signalling. They want another shot.

Like the condemned man strapped into the electric chair, they promise they will change.

You don’t hear this on the criminal justice front. Why? They have no intention of changing their soft-on-crime approach. If the gangland murder of an 11-year-old boy didn’t cause them to sit up and take notice, well, nothing will.

Even the most heinous criminal gets bail; they get caught again, and get bail. Rinse, repeat.

“It’s catch and release and the amount of guns have made our job impossible,” one GTA detective told The Toronto Sun. “The system has been completely overrun, we’re out of jail space. There’s no place to put them so they get bail.”

And there are no repercussions.

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The cop added: “So they go out and keep committing crimes and reoffending.  Caught with a gun? Maybe just a couple of months behind bars. The entire government process is … very liberal. It’s all about the offender. Victims don’t matter.”

One top criminal lawyer — who spoke to the Sun on condition of anonymity — said the Liberals’ approach to the justice system is woke posturing. He, too, pointed to gun crime and non-existent sentencing.

“Without a meaningful solution to gun crime, nothing is going to change,” the legal eagle said. “And the average Canadian is going to be terrified.”

He noted that drug traffickers have always carried guns to use against gangland rivals but now guns are being used in crimes of profit like home invasions, carjackings and smash and grabs at jewellery stores.

The feds, however, are doubling down on targeting Uncle Fred’s dusty squirrel rifle he keeps in the barn.

“You have to ask yourself: Do we want to live like this?” the lawyer said. “The Liberals are simply knee-jerk opportunists whose sole consideration is addressing fairness.”

“The Liberal attitude is to justice is equality. The idea is to make it fair across the board and that can get extremely stupid.”

Carney could do himself a big favour by introducing a 10-year minimum sentence for possession of an illegal handgun — whether it’s been fired or not. Under former PM Stephen Harper, there were mandatory minimums for handgun possession.

But the Ontario Court of Appeal thought Harper was a big meanie and called the law “grossly disproportionate” and “cruel and unusual punishment.”

“There is not an iota of deterrence if you’re caught with a gun,” the lawyer said. “You’re out in a year and a half max. But when you’re facing six to eight years, it’s a totally different ball game.

“In the U.S., they say guns don’t kill people, people kill people, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to kill a lot of people with a Glock. You and I? We don’t have guns as tools of our trade but now most criminals do.”

The veteran legalist is doubtful the Liberals will have a come to Jesus moment unless one of their children is murdered.

He said: “The system is f—ed and it’s being overwhelmed. Will the government do anything about it? Unlikely.

“And when appearances are your top priority, dead kids don’t matter.”

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun