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Jeff Kibble

Replying to Jean-Denis Garon (Bloc Québécois)
“Mr. Speaker, obviously we understand the intent of the bill, and our hearts go out to the victims’ families. I am not a legal expert, but as a parliamentarian, I wonder whether this bill might not lead to constitutional challenges. From what I understand, the Supreme Court has already ruled on the constitutionality of extending the minimum period before someone can be released on parole. Unless I am mistaken, I believe that was ruled unconstitutional. I am wondering how the bill before us today could be deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court, given previous rulings. I would like my colleague to clarify that.”

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Mr. Speaker, as far as I can tell, and the experts have looked at it, the courts agreed that the provision of the Bissonnette case was unconstitutional because the trial judge’s remedy to set discretion at 40 years was too intrusive, but that was struck down because they were stacked upon each other. This will potentially face a charter challenge, but the way that it was built with the floor of 25 years, nothing has changed there. With discretion and the way the bill was built, as the legal experts who came before the committee have stated, is that the floor would stay the same at 25 years of parole ineligibility and discretion would still lie with the judge and with the Parole Board and would rest with the safeties that have been put into this bill. I am confident that this bill will stand and help the families of victims.