Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised during the federal election campaign last winter that tough law-and-order measures would be a top priority of his Conservative government's legislative package.

Now, Justice Minister Vic Toews is preparing "three-strikes" legislation that would make it easier to label violent criminals "dangerous offenders" after a third serious violent conviction.

Under a dangerous offender designation, individuals can be kept in prison indefinitely until it is proven beyond any doubt whatsoever that rehabilitation has actually occurred and there is virtually no likelihood of re-offending.

Toews certainly deserves to be applauded for this initiative and we will wait for the reaction from civil rights groups and opposition parties in the House of Commons.

Unlike California's "three-strikes-and-you're-out law," the proposed Canadian law will not trigger an automatic life sentence for repeat offenders. Also, it will apply only to those who have committed serious crimes, not as in California's case, relatively minor offences.

And it will give judges the discretion of whether to label anyone a dangerous offender, unlike in the U.S., where judges cannot limit prison terms even if they feel the offences do not warrant indefinite terms.

The proposed legislation will also allow an inmate with a dangerous-offender designation to apply for parole after seven years imprisonment. So this is hardly a knee-jerk response to violent offenders and serious sex offenders. It's entirely rational.

Now, thanks in large part to the "no-broken-window" policies of former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led the charge, NYC was declared the safest city in the United States.

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