Marilyn Gladu

Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 62 wordsit is a pleasure to rise to speak to Bill C-14, as well as the Senate amendments that have come forward. I will start off by talking about the importance of passing this legislation quickly and getting it into law. I will then give a bit of detail about the Senate amendments and my thoughts on those before I sum it up.Procedure Positioning · 14 wordsFirst of all, I want to say that this is not a partisan issue.Positioning Reasoning · 27 wordsEvery Canadian wants to be safe in their community and safe in their home. It does not matter which party we come from; we all think that. Claims · 76 wordsEvery Canadian is tired of seeing violent repeat offenders out on the streets when they should be behind bars. In my riding of Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, we had a very tragic incident happen recently at Lambton College, ¹⁰where an innocent student, Dane Nisbet, was shot by someone who has been involved in crime previously, ¹¹and he died. He was 20 years old. People in my community are outraged now because the perpetrator has been let out on bail. Reasoning · 10 wordsThis is why Bill C-14 needs to go into play. Claims · 8 wordsBill C-14 would prevent these things from happening, Procedure · 12 wordsand I will talk a little about how it would do that.Procedure Claims · 156 wordsOver the last few years, there have been unintended consequences, from Bill C-75, for example, with the principle of restraint. The principle of restraint was making judges think that they had to let people out at the earliest possible opportunity with the least possible punishment.¹ Bill C-14 would actually clarify this. It would clarify how police and courts apply the principle of restraint to specify that it does not mean automatic release where detention is justified to protect public safety. This is an incredibly important part of Bill C-14 and something that we definitely are going to need. Also, Bill C-14 would add aggravating factors, making sure we do not have sentences that are too light in extreme cases. When the offence is committed against victims who are first responders, it would be an aggravating factor in sentencing, ²as well as repeat violent offenders with previous convictions within the last five years and organized retail theft.³ Procedure · 8 wordsI heard a question earlier about auto theft.Procedure Claims · 31 wordsThis kind of thing would be an aggravating factor in sentencing, as well as offences interfering with essential infrastructures, ⁴which we see in copper theft and some of the drug-trafficking offences. Positioning · 8 wordsAll of those things are very good measures.Positioning Claims · 33 wordsOne of the other things that was an unintended consequence of Bill C-5 was that house arrest was being allowed for perpetrators of sexual assault.⁵ That would be reversed here in Bill C-14.⁶ Positioning · 6 wordsThat is a very good measure.Positioning Reasoning · 6 wordsIt is something that is needed, Procedure · 6 wordsand we heard lots about that.Procedure Claims · 96 wordsThe other thing this bill would do is align to the military justice system to make sure both systems are consistent.⁷ With respect to the Senate amendments that have come forward, some are good, and some we would prefer not to have. I think the one that would allow the measures for the youth justice system to come into force, that would allow some time to get that right, would be very, very important. I have heard discussion from the Conservatives today that they do not like the measures that the Senate has submitted on sureties, Reasoning · 26 wordsbut one of the things that Conservatives continue not to understand is that when an independent court is making a decision, it has to have discretion. Claims · 24 wordsWe have seen mandatory minimum penalties fail at the Supreme Court because they do not give the judges discretion and the judges are independent. Reasoning · 11 wordsTherefore, this is an important principle that we see represented here. Procedure · 7 wordsIt is only part of the story.Procedure Reasoning · 53 wordsWhen it comes to preventing violent crime in our neighbourhoods and in our communities, we have to have the laws, and then we have to enforce the laws. There is an opportunity to do a better job on enforcement. We have to also look at where we are going to put the people. Claims · 24 wordsA lot of times, people are being released because there is no room in the prisons. That is a shared responsibility, federally and provincially, Reasoning · 8 wordsand something that we need to look at. Procedure · 1 wordsHowever, ProcedureReasoning · 23 wordsif we can get the deterrence to crime right and enforce the law, we are going to see fewer people in the prisons, Claims · 6 wordswhich is what we saw previously. Reasoning · 54 wordsThat, in a nutshell, is why it is critical that we get this legislation passed. The sooner it is passed and gets royal assent, the sooner it would get into law. Then we can stop seeing these repeat and violent offenders out on the streets and getting sentences that I consider to be inadequate. Positioning · 20 wordsI am very proud of the government for the measures that it put in place, ⁸and not just Bill C‑14, PositioningClaims · 37 wordsas Bill C‑16 is exactly what we asked for at the status of women committee, which I am a part of. It addresses coercive control, femicides, deepfakes and a lot of the things that we brought forward.⁹ Positioning · 12 wordsI think the government is serious about addressing crime in this country.Positioning