Shoplifters could be cut off welfare

People with outstanding warrants for relatively minor offences -- such as shoplifting or property damage -- could be denied income assistance in B.C. under a newly passed bill the provincial government had claimed was supposed to focus on serious criminals.

Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman admitted yesterday the new legislation encompasses all "indictable offences" in the federal Criminal Code, including potentially minor infractions.

It appears to contradict the province's justification for introducing the bill last month, which only mentioned serious charges such as murder and assault.

Government passed the bill Tuesday, without clarification of those whom it will actually affect.

The law will deny taxpayer-funded social assistance to certain people, with certain outstanding warrants, starting early next year.

Ministry bureaucrats will now decide what kind of warrant will justify someone getting cut off provincial help, said Coleman.

Asked why those details weren't included in the actual law so they could be publicly debated in the legislature, Coleman said it was because of lawyers' advice.

The confusion marks the latest hiccup in legislation that's believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, but which critics say is almost sure to face a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"We think, regardless of what types of indictable offences are included ... the possibility of non-compliance with the Charter remains," said Sarah Khan, a lawyer with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, which took the province to court on the same issue in 1999 and had similar regulations quashed.

"We're just opposed to all of it, regardless."

The NDP Opposition also refused to support the bill. "Our concern is about things like a single mom shoplifting at a Safeway because she's hungry and wants to feed her kids, potentially she loses welfare on this bill and I don't believe anybody desires that," said Shane Simpson, social development critic.

Coleman dismissed such a scenario.

"We're not going to go after the single mom who does shoplifting, we know that," he said, although he admitted the law, as currently written, could allow the province to do just that if it wanted.

Simpson also ridiculed the fact the bill relies on those potentially fleeing criminal charges to voluntarily disclose outstanding warrants when they apply for social assistance.

While the province will require people to authorize criminal-records checks during an application, it will only run someone's name if it receives a tip or complaint, said Coleman. Mainly, it will accept what people put on their applications "at face value," he said.

"People aren't going to self-identify, particularly if they're up for a serious offence," said Simpson.

"This is another incoherent piece of legislation."

Source: Times Colonist