“Madam Speaker, we all want to prevent discrimination and violence in this country, but fast-tracking and shutting down debate is not going to help improve this legislation. We have a lot of important questions. We do not want to wait until there are complaints, tribunals or criminal sanctions after the fact. We want to talk about what we are going to do to prevent it. We have not heard from the minister or the government on how they are going to invest in anti-bullying in schools; in mental health supports for vulnerable youth; in housing and homelessness, which is something that we have heard is clearly important on this; in community-based violence protection; in support for victims of hate incidents and discrimination; and in training in federally regulated workplaces, which is under the purview of the federal government and the minister, before complaints happen. We have a lot of questions that have not been addressed by the government. Can the minister explain when the funding is going to come in on prevention, instead of it happening after the fact?”
Statement grade
A
The average of Signal, Relevance, Respect and Clarity.
Average 94 / 100
A score under 50 is red. Choose a measurement to see where it lost points and why; choose it again to clear.
Thanks 3%Claims 68%Reasoning 29%
This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Madam Speaker, Thanks · 10 wordsI want to thank my colleague for a thoughtful intervention, ThanksClaims · 213 wordswhich is very important if our goal is to not only penalize bad actors after they have committed a crime but also prevent violence in the first place.Each time I have introduced a bill to reform Canada’s criminal law in the House and spoke about it publicly, I begin by laying out the public safety strategy that the Government of Canada is moving forward with.Partly on pointThe first pillar is to strengthen Canada’s criminal laws, but we recognize that, largely, this has an impact after a crime has taken place.We also want to give tools to law enforcement and community organizations on the front line to support victims and to investigate and prosecute crime, but the most important pillar of our strategy is those upstream investments.They may be outside the scope of this bill, but they are moving forward in parallel.This includes investments through Build Canada Homes to build assisted, supportive and affordable housing for people at risk in Canada.1This includes working with the Minister of Health and provincial governments to advance services and treatments for mental health and addictions.3It also includes long-term investments, particularly in at-risk youth, including through the youth employment and skills strategy, 2as well as investments in infrastructure that builds safer and stronger communities.Reasoning · 38 wordsIf we want to end violent crime in the long term, we need to take a holistic view of how we build safe communities and healthy people.Part of that equation also demands reforms to the criminal law.Claims · 29 wordsThe protections contained in this bill, though penalizing crime after the fact, can in fact have some preventative nature.I mentioned coercive control and intervening before violence becomes deadly.Reasoning · 67 wordsHowever, we should not delay the important work in this bill until the work around affordable housing, mental health and addictions and the at-risk youth prevention programs is done, because that work is going to continue in perpetuity for many many years.We have an opportunity to take action today to strengthen Canada’s criminal laws to offer protections.I think we should avail ourselves of the opportunity.
