On second thought

While agreeing on the use of the word "failure" to describe the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Prime Minister and Justice Minister apparently differ on the applicability of the word "unmitigated."

The Harper government has decided to tweak rather than overhaul Canada’s young offender laws, which the prime minister once dismissed as an "unmitigated failure"...

Mr. Nicholson said he would not describe the act that way, but his communications director, Genevieve Breton, wrote later in an e-mail that she wished to clarify that her boss was not at odds with Mr. Harper. "While the minister believes that the act is working overall, it has certainly been, as the prime minister has stated in the past, a failure with respect to protecting the public from violent and repeat young offenders," wrote Ms. Breton.