Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I'm pleased to meet with you once again to discuss justice legislation. This time I'm here to discuss Bill C-36, an act to amend the Criminal Code, the Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act, which proposes to make significant changes to the faint hope regime.
As you are aware, the Criminal Code currently provides that offences of high treason and first and second degree murder carry mandatory terms of life imprisonment accompanied by mandatory periods of parole ineligibility. For high treason and first degree murder, an offender must spend a minimum of 25 years in prison before being eligible to apply for parole. For second degree murder, an offender must serve a minimum of 10 years. However, a judge may increase this to a maximum of 25 years, depending on a variety of factors, including the circumstances of the crime.
Despite the appropriately severe nature of these parole ineligibility periods, the faint hope regime--section 745.6 and related provisions in the Criminal Code--allows offenders sentenced to life imprisonment for murder or high treason to apply to be eligible for early parole after serving only 15 years. Our government promised to change this by restricting the availability of faint hope for already incarcerated offenders and by eliminating it completely in the future.
The amendments to the Criminal Code I'm bringing forward will accomplish these goals. First, they will bar everyone who commits murder or high treason in the future from applying for faint hope. All those who commit these offences after these proposed amendments come into force will no longer be able to apply for a parole eligibility date earlier than that mandated by the Criminal Code and imposed by the judge at the time of sentencing. In effect, Mr. Chairman, the faint hope regime will be repealed for all murderers in the future. This will complete a process begun in 1997, when the faint hope regime was effectively repealed for all multiple murderers who committed at least one murder after that date.
The rationale for Bill C-36 in this regard is very straightforward. Allowing murderers a chance, even a faint one, to get early parole is not truth in sentencing. Truth in sentencing means that those who commit serious crimes ought to do serious time. That is what the proposals in Bill C-36 aim to do. They restore truth in sentencing and keep dangerous criminals in prison for longer periods of time.
Clearly, the faint hope regime does not, on its face, automatically entitle an applicant to parole. In fact, however, the vast majority of those who are successful on a faint hope application are ultimately granted parole by the National Parole Board. What this means is that killers who were given appropriately lengthy sentence terms are getting out and walking the streets, albeit under conditions of parole, earlier than otherwise would be the case. These amendments are designed to respond to the concern of Canadians who are often dismayed to discover that, thanks to faint hope, the custodial sentences imposed on murderers are not always the ones served.
As for those already incarcerated for murder who are now eligible to apply under the faint hope clause or will become eligible to apply for faint hope in the coming years, their right to do so will remain.
However, the second thing these amendments will do is tighten up the faint hope application procedure to screen out the most unworthy of these applications and place restrictions on when and how many times these offenders may apply for faint hope. This new procedure will apply to those who commit their offences before the coming-into-force date. Those already serving life sentences in prison, those who have been convicted but not yet sentenced, and those charged with murder or high treason prior to the coming-into-force date who are later convicted will be subject to this new procedure.
In proposing these Criminal Code amendments both to bar future murderers from applying and to tighten up the application procedure for those already in the system, Mr. Chairman, we are mindful of the suffering endured by the families and loved ones of murder victims. Through these amendments, we propose to spare them the pain of attending repeated faint hope hearings and having to relive their terrible losses. As I have said on a number of occasions, this government remains committed to standing up for the victims of crime.
Many of you already know that the faint hope application has been amended a number of times since its inception in 1976 in response to the concerns of victims' families and the citizens of Canada.
At present, the procedure has three steps. First, the applicant must convince a judge in the province where the conviction occurred that there is a reasonable prospect that the application will proceed. This threshold test has been described by both the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench and the Ontario Superior Court as being relatively low.
We will make this test tougher. A faint-hope applicant will have to prove that they have a substantial likelihood that their application will succeed. They will need to have that substantial likelihood that their application will succeed. This means that the evidence the offender will bring forward to a judge must be much more convincing. This will prevent less worthy applications from going forward.
We are also proposing a longer minimum period of time before unsuccessful applicants can reapply to a judge. Right now, the minimum period an offender has to wait to reapply to a judge is two years. Under this proposal, they will now have to wait a minimum of five years.
If these proposed procedural changes become law, a convicted murderer with a 25-year parole ineligibility period who applies at the earliest possible opportunity will only be able to make two faint-hope applications, at the 15- and the 20-year mark. This contrasts with the present system, where there are five applications at 15, 17, 19, 21, and 23 years. This change from two to five years will create more certainty for the families of victims about when a faint-hope hearing will occur. By limiting the number of applications that can be made, we will reduce the trauma that these hearings often inflict on them.
If an applicant succeeds at the first stage, he must then convince a 12-member jury to agree unanimously to reduce his or her parole eligibility date. If the jury says no, the offender may, under the present law, reapply in as little as two years. Again, we are going to change this to five years, and for the same reasons that I've just outlined.
If an applicant is successful at the second stage, he or she may go on to apply for parole directly to the National Parole Board. No changes are proposed for this final stage of the process.
Under the current law, those convicted of murder or high treason may apply for faint hope at any time after serving 15 years. We also propose to change this by putting a three-month limit on faint-hope applications.
This will require applicants to apply within 90 days of becoming eligible. If this application window is missed, the offender will have to wait five years to apply and will once again have 90 days within which to file a subsequent application. This will ensure that applications are made at the first and each subsequently available opportunity. No longer will victims' families be forced to live in constant dread, uncertain as to whether a particular killer will revive their suffering by seeking early parole at his or her whim.
Let me add that I understand the concern of ordinary Canadians that the faint-hope regime allows for lenient treatment of murderers. In this regard, I believe that most Canadians support these measures, which are aimed at protecting society by keeping violent or dangerous offenders in custody for longer periods. This bill will allow us to meet the concerns of Canadians that murderers do the time they have been given and stay longer in prison than they do now. That is why I urge all members of this committee to support this bill.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
