Catch-and-release is a fine strategy to preserve fish populations in Ontario, but it is a lousy approach to fighting crime and keeping dangerous and repeat offenders off the streets.

All too often these days, we see stories on the news about innocent people being killed or preyed upon by criminals and/or known gang members with previous arrests and criminal records. Many of these dangerous offenders are recently out on bail or on parole from a previous crime.

Police make arrests and barely finish filling out the paperwork before these dangerous offenders are released back on to the streets. That’s not the message we should be sending to these violent offenders. That’s not the message we should be sending to the law-abiding citizens of Ontario.

Take, for example, the recent tragic story of 11-year-old Ephraim Brown, who was shot and killed by a stray bullet on July 22. The two men arrested following the shooting and charged with first-degree murder are well known to Toronto police. One is a known gang member with a history of violence and weapons offences who was on probation. The other faced charges in 2005 in relation to a shooting that injured four people, including a four-year-old child.

And who can forget the story of Jane Creba? She was the 15-year-old Toronto girl who was shot and killed after getting caught in the crossfire of a gang shooting outside the Eaton Centre and Sam the Record Man in Toronto on Boxing Day 2005. How many of us have stood on that street corner or shopped at those stores where she was shot and killed?

In all, seven men and three young offenders – all members of two different street gangs – have been charged in connection to the shooting. One of the first arrests was a young man who had just been released from prison before Christmas that year, having served 30 days for his role in a convenience-store robbery. He, too, was on probation at the time of the shooting.

We need strengthen programs and initiatives that give youth an alternative to gangs and violence, but we also need to increase the penalties for those who still decide to commit violent crimes in Ontario.

PC leader John Tory and I will provide real solutions to lower crime in Ontario, including: working with the federal government to strengthen the young offender legislation and put more police on the streets; hiring special prosecutors who will work to classify more of these criminals as dangerous offenders and keep them behind bars; and putting a stop to plea bargain deals for firearm, sexual assault and other violent crimes.