Your comments: Stockwell Day and unreported crimes

Treasury Board President Stockwell Day says the government will go ahead with prison expansion. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Treasury Board President Stockwell Day said Tuesday that the government will go ahead with its plan to spend billions of dollars for new prisons, and suggested that statistics showing a decline in crime in Canada are not accurate.

Nearly 2.2 million crimes were reported to police in 2009, about 43,000 fewer than in 2008, according to a Statistics Canada report released in July.

During a news conference in Ottawa, Day said the government has received indications that more and more people are not reporting crimes committed against them.

In a statement to CBC News on Tuesday afternoon, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's office cited Statistics Canada's report of its last general social survey conducted in 2004, which found an estimated 34 per cent of Canadians who are victims of crime still aren't reporting the crime to police.

We asked you if you've ever been the victim of a crime you didn't report to authorities. As of Thursday noon ET, more than 1,500 voters were cast. Nearly 70 per cent of respondents said they have not been victims of crimes they didn't report.

Many commenters disagreed with Day's statements, saying that unreported crimes aren't a justification for an expensive expansion of the prison system.
 
"I think we can all assume that minor thefts and assaults go unreported because it is a waste of time to report," Unrepresented socialist wrote. "And if these crimes are going unreported, how is it going to help to have more jails to house offenders that are not going to get caught - because their crimes have not been reported!"

"If we want to get technical, sure I've been the 'victim' of 'crimes' I haven't reported," wrote Seanier. "What about the woman who let her dog poop on my lawn the other day without picking it up? That's illegal, right? Depending on the context, there are lots of good reasons some crimes go unreported. I won't bother getting alarmed until I know exactly what kinds of crime are going unreported."

TigerT believes that a significant amount of crime, including violent crime, goes unreported and unpunished, but wasn't sure if building more jails is the answer.

"If we are going to spend more money maybe it should be spent on better policing."

Some readers came to Day's defence.

"When you people accuse the government of using scare tactics when they claim many crimes go unreported and they do not believe the stats, you need to give your heads a shake," wrote CatherineCoCo. "We know for instance that only a handful of rape cases are being reported by the rape victims. Many cottages get broken into and go unreported. Spousal assault still goes on and remains a huge problem, thousands go unreported, many personal assaults go unreported unless someone is hurt or dies, it goes on and on."

Swifthawk said that a "43,000 drop [in reported crime cases] in a country of 33 million is not very large when you stop and think about it. Maybe if they build these new prisons they will actually keep the prisoners IN there for the duration of their sentence. One could always hope."

What do you think?

Related: Crime statistics not accurate, Day suggests