moved for leave to introduce Bill C-235, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conditional sentencing).
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to reintroduce a private member's bill that I have introduced in the three previous parliaments, the first time on May 26, 1999.
This legislation is designed to address the frequent misuse of the conditional sentencing provision in the Criminal Code of Canada.
The former Liberal government passed section 742.1 of the Criminal Code into law in 1995, despite warnings that without clear instructions to judges, killers and other violent offenders could literally get away with murder. Time and again that is precisely what has happened.
If passed, this bill would ensure that certain serious and violent offences, such as murder, assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, drug trafficking, manslaughter, et cetera, would be excluded from consideration for conditional sentencing, meaning the convict would have to serve jail time.
For the first time since I introduced this legislation seven years ago, we have a Prime Minister and justice minister that understand the need to close this conditional loophole to violent offenders. I look forward to working with the Prime Minister and justice minister to rectify that problem in this Parliament for the sake of victims and all law-abiding Canadians.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)