Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-64, an act to amend the Criminal Code in relation to vehicle identification numbers. The Bloc is in favour of this bill, which will provide the police with an additional tool in the fight against networks active in the theft, appearance alteration and resale of motor vehicles. Those networks, too often, enable criminal organizations to finance other criminal activities.
Obviously, changing the appearance of vehicles and reselling them is often made possible through the existence of a network that is involved in other criminal activities. So, this bill aims at giving the police more powers. The Bloc always strives to defend the interests of Quebeckers and of Canadians.
In fact, too often, criminal organizations operate in several areas, hence the name “networks”. In this way, through such methods as tampering with identification numbers, altering the appearance of cars and reselling them, they can sustain a network which later branches out into the sale of drugs, guns and other illicit products. So, all that is connected. This position by the Bloc certainly comes as no surprise. It has consistently opposed those activities and has always denounced the way in which the networks of those dealing in drugs as well as in other criminal products are allowed to sell their goods far too easily. Vehicles that are stolen, disguised, and so forth often represent a significant component in the network of organized criminals who are rampant in Quebec and elsewhere in the other Canadian provinces.
Bill C-64 amends the Criminal Code to make it an offence to alter, remove or obliterate a vehicle identification number on a motor vehicle. In Canada, every vehicle has to have an identification number to clearly differentiate one vehicle from another. Anyone who has a car or any other mobile equipment understands that every vehicle is identified by a serial number. Those involved in auto theft rings obliterate and change serial numbers. They take legally tagged vehicles that have been in an accident, remove their identification numbers and put them on stolen vehicles. So far, this had escaped the Criminal Code, in the sense that obliterating, altering or removing an identification number on a motor vehicle was not an offence under the Criminal Code.
Bill C-64 will make it possible to charge anyone involved in this kind of trafficking, that is, individuals who know full well that there did not use to be a criminal offence associated with taking the serial number off one vehicle to put it on another vehicle. It is well known that what we are really talking about is organized auto theft rings. These are traffickers who often deal other things, such as drugs and weapons. These rings made windfall profits by taking the serial numbers off damaged vehicles and putting them on stolen ones, which were often in very good condition and were used to earn profits from illicit trafficking.
As far as the Bloc Québécois is concerned, this bill is telling anyone who is involved in this kind of trafficking and thought that, because it was not a criminal offence, it was okay to take the serial number off one vehicle and put it on another, that what they are doing is now a criminal act and that the police will be allowed to stop them and charge them with an offence under the Criminal Code.
At present, under the Criminal Code, there is no specific offence for those who alter a vehicle identification number to hide the identity of a stolen vehicle. As we speak, that is not a criminal act.
However, once Bill C-64 is passed, it will be a criminal offence to tamper with or to alter the identification number on a motor vehicle.
The Bloc Québécois feels that this is another way to target organized criminal networks that are active in a number of areas, including car theft and the trafficking of licence plates or serial numbers that often come from stolen vehicles. Later on, these numbers are often put on vehicles that were not stolen, but that have been involved in an accident.
Until now, we had to rely on section 354 of the Criminal Code, which Bill C-64 seeks to amend, to prosecute individuals found in possession of vehicles whose serial number had been altered or obliterated. The Criminal Code currently has no specific provision making it an offence to alter, obliterate or remove a vehicle identification number. Bill C-64 will fill that void.
The new offence will be added to section 377, which deals with the offence that consists in damaging documents through destruction, defacing, obliteration or injury. A person found guilty of the new offence will be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. The Crown may also opt for an offence punishable on summary conviction, which carries a fine of a maximum of $2,000, a prison term of six months, or both.
For the benefit of Quebeckers who are listening to us, I will read the wording of the new offence that has been included:
(1) Every one commits an offence who, wholly or partially, alters, removes or obliterates a vehicle identification number on a motor vehicle without lawful excuse and under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the person did so to conceal the identity of the motor vehicle.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), “vehicle identification number” means any number or other mark placed on a motor vehicle for the purpose of distinguishing the motor vehicle from other similar motor vehicles.
Of course, motor vehicles include snowmobiles, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. So, we are talking about all motor vehicles whose identification numbers are tampered with. Those individuals who will engage in this type of trafficking or tampering will now be found guilty of that offence under section 377.1 of the Criminal Code. The offence is defined as follows in paragraph (3):
Every one who commits an offence under subsection (1)
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
For these, sentences go up to five years. The people who watch us, men and women, old and young, often think that we parliamentarians are here to make their lives miserable. Indeed, we are often told that there are too many laws and regulations. The Bloc Québécois wants to send a message to our youth, to the young men and women who are watching. In some circumstances, you might want to help someone buy a small motorcycle, a moped or some other vehicle like that. You must be careful because serial numbers can be changed on vehicles that have been in accidents. So, we may buy a motorcycle at a very low price, thinking that we have just found the deal of the century. When someone offers to sell something expensive at a very low price, there is something wrong. That is how stolen vehicles are sold.
And that is in a way the message we want to send: one must be careful not to be dragged into shady deals. When something is sold at a certain price, it is because it is worth that price. When someone says that he or she is doing you a favour, you think that you have found the perfect deal. However, oftentimes, when you find the perfect deal on a motor vehicle, it is because there is something wrong with that vehicle. Often, it is a practically new vehicle to which the number of a damaged vehicle has been attributed by tampering. People should avoid that kind of deal.
Bill C-64 tells the people, the young men and women from Quebec who listen to us, that we must really prevent criminal gangs from entering all sectors of our economy.
Automobile theft is one of the major activities of criminal gangs. One of their methods was to alter identification numbers. They would take the numbers of vehicles that had been in accidents and that they had often bought at very low prices. Then they put these numbers on stolen vehicles of the same make that were virtually new. This enabled the gangs to sell these vehicles at very attractive prices to citizens who thought they had just discovered the bargain of the century.
In the end, the gangs would be dismantled. And often, honest citizens who had purchased a vehicle thinking they had discovered the bargain of the century saw the police arrive a few months or years later and inform them that there had been trafficking in identification numbers. Most of the time, these people had bought their vehicles from individuals who told them that it was legal and that taking the registration from one vehicle and putting it on another was not a criminal offence.
Now Bill C-64 makes it clear that motor vehicle theft is a criminal offence. It is clear that both vehicle theft and taking the registration or serial number of one vehicle and putting it on a stolen vehicle are criminal offences. It is also clear now that the simple act of transferring the registration and serial number is a criminal offence. I would like to read this criminal offence for you and the citizens listening to us:
Every one who commits an offence under subsection (1)
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
This really is a criminal act.
Once again, there are those who will say that vehicle theft is not as serious as all that and it is not necessarily criminal gangs who are involved. I would like to provide just one statistic. Motor vehicle theft is becoming increasingly widespread. In 2004, nearly 170,000 vehicle thefts were reported in Canada.
It is obvious that when 170,000 vehicles are stolen, the purpose is to re-sell them. When the number of vehicles is this high, it is because criminal gangs are behind it. They are very well organized. Often they take advantage of young people who need money and get them to commit criminal acts. They have them commit thefts first, and then have them take the legal identifications from vehicles involved in accidents and get them to put the identifications on stolen vehicles. Often the young people are told that this is not a criminal offence, there is no problem, because no crime was committed and they will not get a criminal record.
We want to send a message that such trafficking is illegal. This is part of an organized criminal network involved in other types of criminal activities, often drug or arms trafficking. These networks must be dismantled. One way to do that is to tell those who assume that there are no consequences for taking the licence plate from one vehicle to use on another that this is a crime that carries a prison sentence like other crimes do.
The Bloc Québécois supports Bill C-64, which is before us today. The men and women in our political party strongly believe that this is a step in the right direction in the fight against organized crime.
Finally, it is all here. The aim of this bill is to discourage people who are sometimes short of funds and who are often honest, but who are asked to do something dishonest. They are being told that they can do it because such activities are not punishable under the Criminal Code.
All we are telling organized crime networks is that they should no longer use young people or others for this, because it is a crime. We are telling people that, from now on, we will no longer tolerate this.
All we want is for the bill to come into force as soon as possible and for the Criminal Code to be amended in consequence. Organized crime networks often have fingers in a number of different pies, including auto theft—170,000 vehicles were stolen in 2004 as I said. These networks take advantage of the high demand for stolen vehicles trafficked with licence plates from legal vehicles.
From now on, trafficking in such vehicles would also be a crime. Consequently, everyone involved in this activity would be considered a criminal, including the organizers of such activities within the network.
Thus, the government has understood that the Bloc Québécois is in favour of Bill C-64. We are in favour of this legislative change. We want these offences to be included in the Criminal Code as quickly as possible.
I will conclude by reading once again this clause 377.1 that will be added to the Criminal Code through Bill C-64. It says:
377.1 (1) Every one commits an offence who, wholly or partially, alters, removes or obliterates a vehicle identification number on a motor vehicle without lawful excuse and under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the person did so to conceal the identity of the motor vehicle.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), “vehicle identification number” means any number or other mark placed on a motor vehicle for the purpose of distinguishing the motor vehicle from other similar motor vehicles.
(3) Every one who commits an offence under subsection (1)
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
We are thus telling Quebeckers that, as soon as Bill C-64 is implemented and comes into force, a person who alters, removes or obliterates the serial number of a motor vehicle—and I repeat, a motor vehicle, that is a car, a truck, a motorcycle, a snowmobile, a boat, in short, everything that functions with a motor—will be committing a criminal act. Let us stop thinking that this only applies to cars. Indeed, all those who altered serial numbers would be committing a criminal act.
Once again, the Bloc Québécois supports Bill C-64 in order to counter organized crime, which, on top of all its other activities, was responsible for the theft of 170,000 cars in 2004. We clearly want to deal with organized crime, which, in addition to stealing cars, is often into the illegal sale of drugs and firearms.
