VANCOUVER -- A special justice-system task force has recommended that British Columbia become the first province in Canada to establish a "community court" that shifts the focus away from determining guilt or innocence, to instead place the emphasis on treating the illnesses and addictions of criminals.

"I think this is a revolutionary report," B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal said yesterday after the Justice Review Task Force released its findings. The task force spent more than a year studying the problem of street crime in Vancouver.

"You can't always be sending everybody to jail," Mr. Oppal said, as he endorsed the underlying theme of the report, which is that the justice system has to do a better job of striking at the root cause of crimes.

The report, put together by a group of lawyers, judges, police officers, health workers and social workers, says that society has to find a new way to deal with criminals whose actions are driven by substance addiction, mental-health problems or intense poverty.

Substance addiction? You mean from all the free heroin they're supplying at the safe shooting galleries? With all those government supplemented drugs, how can there still be any crime?

Why doesn't BC just get rid of their cops entirely, and save the taxpayers some money? Disband the courts - fewer judiciary salaries to pay. Tear up those outmoded books of law. What do we need them for, anyway? After all, if we just leave everyone on the honor system, with free smack, how can things go wrong?