Bill C-10 (Historical)

Safe Streets and Communities Act

An Act to enact the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act and to amend the State Immunity Act, the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and other Acts

Part 1 of this enactment creates, in order to deter terrorism, a cause of action that allows victims of terrorism to sue perpetrators of terrorism and their supporters. It also amends the State Immunity Act to prevent a listed foreign state from claiming immunity from the jurisdiction of Canadian courts in respect of actions that relate to its support of terrorism.
Part 2 amends the Criminal Code to
(a) increase or impose mandatory minimum penalties, and increase maximum penalties, for certain sexual offences with respect to children;
(b) create offences of making sexually explicit material available to a child and of agreeing or arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child;
(c) expand the list of specified conditions that may be added to prohibition and recognizance orders to include prohibitions concerning contact with a person under the age of 16 and use of the Internet or any other digital network;
(d) expand the list of enumerated offences that may give rise to such orders and prohibitions; and
(e) eliminate the reference, in section 742.1, to serious personal injury offences and to restrict the availability of conditional sentences for all offences for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 14 years or life and for specified offences, prosecuted by way of indictment, for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 10 years.
It also amends the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to provide for minimum penalties for serious drug offences, to increase the maximum penalty for cannabis (marijuana) production and to reschedule certain substances from Schedule III to that Act to Schedule I.
Part 3 amends the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to
(a) clarify that the protection of society is the paramount consideration for the Correctional Service of Canada in the corrections process and for the National Parole Board and the provincial parole boards in the determination of all cases;
(b) establish the right of a victim to make a statement at parole hearings and permit the disclosure to a victim of certain information about the offender;
(c) provide for the automatic suspension of the parole or statutory release of offenders who receive a new custodial sentence and require the National Parole Board to review their case within a prescribed period; and
(d) rename the National Parole Board as the Parole Board of Canada.
It also amends the Criminal Records Act to substitute the term “record suspension” for the term “pardon”. It extends the ineligibility periods for applications for a record suspension and makes certain offences ineligible for a record suspension. It also requires the National Parole Board to submit an annual report that includes the number of applications for record suspensions and the number of record suspensions ordered.
Lastly, it amends the International Transfer of Offenders Act to provide that one of the purposes of that Act is to enhance public safety and to modify the list of factors that the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness may consider in deciding whether to consent to the transfer of a Canadian offender.
Part 4 amends the sentencing and general principles of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, as well as its provisions relating to judicial interim release, adult and youth sentences, publication bans, and placement in youth custody facilities. It defines the terms “violent offence” and “serious offence”, amends the definition “serious violent offence” and repeals the definition “presumptive offence”. It also requires police forces to keep records of extrajudicial measures used to deal with young persons.
Part 5 amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to allow officers to refuse to authorize foreign nationals to work in Canada in cases where to give authorization would be contrary to public policy considerations that are specified in instructions given by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
The enactment also makes related and consequential amendments to other Acts.

Report Stage

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure that the hon. member's comments were directly related to the bill at hand, but let us talk a bit about that wallet that we are carrying, including $577 million over five years for the strategy, prevention, treatment and enforcement activities, our anti-drug strategy.

Our health portfolio has invested millions of dollars. It is the one thing I commented on in that speech about not operating in silos. When we look at our investments in education, health, sport and recreation, across all those pillars, our government is making exceptional investments in the people of our country.

It is when we just look at the one bill and if this were the only strategy we had for improving the lives of Canadians, I would agree that this would be problematic. However, it is one tool in a whole host of tools we are using to improve the lives of Canadians.

I do take exception to the fact that the member said there was any link, or I made any suggestion in my speech, to how prisons were going to help children because nowhere in my speech did I mention that.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, we recognize that we have provincial governments and we have many professionals across Canada who have expressed great concern in regard to Bill C-10. Close to one third of our chamber, I believe, is made up of new members of Parliament. Yet, we just had the government House Leader stand in his place and move yet another motion of time allocation thereby preventing many members of Parliament from being able to speak to the bill and provide comment on the bill as to what their constituents might have to say and so forth.

Why is the government so focused on taking away the ability of members to contribute to the debate on Bill C-10? Why is the government so focused on ignoring the professionals across Canada and the many different provincial jurisdictions that say that this is a bad bill? Why are the Conservatives doing it?

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, it is no wonder there are other organizations and jurisdictions concerned about this. A large part of that has to do with the tremendous amount of misinformation and fear-mongering that has been done by the members opposite.

It has been outstanding to hear the comparisons to a Texas model, the warnings to people that we will be throwing six year olds in jail over two marijuana plants growing in their basement and all kinds of misinformation.

What we are doing during this debate is correcting the record. We have heard time and time again that many of these bills that are now combined into one to make it more efficient were already passed and presented were it not for an untimely election that we were thrust into, courtesy of the Liberal Party that is now relegated to the back benches.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it was a pleasure to listen to the member for Yukon. I appreciate his experience as a former RCMP officer.

I have met with corrections officers who are very pleased with the provisions in this bill as they would allow accountability for inmates who often before had no consequences for their activities in correctional facilities.

Could the member address the positive measures in this bill that corrections officers and the correctional system can use to ensure that inmates are accountable for their activities when they are in prison?

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, having been a deputy superintendent of operations at a correctional facility in Yukon, I can say that when inmates have a plan and when that plan is worked with case managers and there are goals and objectives, we can find correctional environments to be a place of help, hope and healing.

Recidivism programs, the opportunity and time for them to work on things that have brought their criminality to the point where they are in jail, are very important locations for them to do that. The investment in new facilities, clean environments, safe places where staff and inmates can interact together are very important to close that gap so that we actually can work on those recidivism programs and truly reduce crime in this country.

[The Acting Speaker, Bruce Stanton]

Before I recognize the hon. member for Halifax, I will have to let her know that we only have three to four minutes remaining. We will get started just the same and I will give her an indication when there is one minute remaining. Then we will have to go to the next order of business.

The hon. member for Halifax.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed by that timing, but I will be back tomorrow, hopefully, to finish my speech, because it is really important for me to get on the record about this bill.

I have been thinking about the omnibus crime bill a lot. It comes to mind whenever I have a moment to think, like on the plane from Ottawa to Halifax, or on the walk to the office. In fact, it came to mind last week in church, because last Sunday, November 20, at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, together with community members and descendants, Reverend Rhonda Britton and Dalhousie president Tom Traves, we celebrated not only the life but the legacy of James Robinson Johnston, the legacy that he left for Nova Scotia and for all of Canada. It was at this commemorative service that I started to think differently about Bill C-10. I will explain that.

James Robinson Johnston enrolled in Dalhousie University at the age of 16. He received his Bachelor of Letters degree in 1896 and his Bachelor of Law in 1898. He was the first member of Nova Scotia's black community to graduate from university and then, also, from law. He blazed a path for many to follow. His work in the African Nova Scotian community made a profound impact on the progress of African Nova Scotian communities today.

In 1991, a James Robinson Johnston chair in Black Canadian Studies was established at Dalhousie University to commemorate and deepen the link between the African Nova Scotia community and the academic study that takes place at universities.

Last Sunday, at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in my community, we not only remembered James Robinson Johnston, but we also had the opportunity to welcome the new JRJ chair in Black Canadian Studies, Dr. Afua Cooper. In her address, Dr. Cooper noted that James Robinson Johnston, along with many members of our African Nova Scotian communities, was a descendant of the 2,000 black refugees who fled the United States after the War of 1812 and settled in Nova Scotia.

The War of 1812 caught my attention, and it made me stop to think about the government's recent decision to commemorate the War of 1812, and spending millions of dollars to do so. It also made me stop to think about how our government is spending millions of dollars to commemorate a moment in history when free slaves came to Canada and how we are, at the same time, debating a bill in the House that would see thousands more Canadians in our jails, added to a prison population that is already disproportionately African Canadian.

I was sitting there thinking about this and trying to figure out if it was ironic or if it was just plain shameful, and a young woman named El Jones stood and took the stage. She is an amazing spoken word artist. I have seen perform many pieces about the realities of our community. Her performances are always thoughtful, provocative and truthful. In her piece about James Robinson Johnston, she said one line that crystallized what I was thinking about. In describing some of the needs of the black communities in Canada, she said, ”Because we need black lawyers and judges to advocate for us, reforming the courts where we are disproportionately jailed”.

That is it. We have failed to apply a racial lens to these bills. My NDP colleague from Edmonton—Strathcona eloquently spelled out the potential impacts of this bill on first nations, Inuit and Métis people earlier this afternoon. She was exactly right. Who is our system failing? All we need to do is look in our prisons and we will see who our system fails.

I look forward to the next opportunity in this House to finish my speech.

[The Acting Speaker, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Halifax will have six minutes remaining and five minutes for questions and comments when the House next returns to debate on this motion.

It now being 5:30 p.m., the House will now proceed to the consideration of private members' business as listed on today's order paper.

The House resumed from November 29 consideration of Bill C-10, An Act to enact the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act and to amend the State Immunity Act, the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and other Acts, as reported (with amendments) from the committee, and of the motions in Group No. 1.

[The Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

Order. I will just ask all hon. colleagues who may wish to carry on conversations to do so outside the chamber so that the House can continue on with debate.

The hon. member for Halifax has six minutes left.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, last night when I was speaking to this bill, I was trying to make the links between our spending on the War of 1812 at a time when freed slaves came to Canada and formed our African Nova Scotian population, and an omnibus crime bill that is going to send more people to prisons when—

[The Deputy Speaker, Denise Savoie]

I would like to ask the House for a little order, please. I would ask members to take their conversations to the lobbies. Order, please.

The hon. member for Halifax.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Madam Speaker, the links between the War of 1812 and freed slaves coming to Canada is the fact that we have an omnibus crime bill that will send more people to prison, where African Nova Scotians and African Canadians are already disproportionately represented.

I want an omnibus crime bill that is full of measures that actually combat crime. How about an omnibus bill that is full of reforms for education, housing, training programs and real justice reforms?

As I mentioned, last night when I was at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, El Jones read a poem that sort of got these ideas in my head. I thought I would never be able to say it better than El Jones, so I would like to read into the record an excerpt from the poem she read at that service. I would never try to appropriate her voice, but I want to share her words with my colleagues in the House. The excerpt is as follows:

It wasn't that he was special
There is nothing detectable in his origins
That make him better than anyone present
The lesson is that we should be skeptical when they tell us
That we were not born to be successful
Born of a hardworking shoemaker and a mama who was respectable
His life seems a familiar spectacle
Began his education just down on Maynard Street in 1882
Which goes to show the youth that there is nothing they can't do
Look at the life of this man who was just like you.
And lord knows how hard we have to struggle
We're still getting half as much and having to work double
James Robinson Johnston had all the same troubles.
He wasn't the first black to go to Dalhousie but he was the first to finish
And I don't know but I can imagine that he could have won a Guinness world record
For all the racism he endured but he refused to be diminished.
And we're still living with the same issues impeding our progress
Still the only black faces still not enough black professors
Still feeling like temporary guests and being questioned about our presence
Because just this September I heard a black student say
This place just isn't welcome for us. Imagine more than a century before us
No black student center, no blacks on campus to act as his mentor
At a time when achieving even an elementary education was eventful
It's amazing to me that anyone entered and not only did he come back semester after semester
He ended up in law school. This ancestor did not allow himself to be rejected.
Look at our people so often neglected
And said let me represent them.
And it was bigger than just securing his own status
In our fight for acceptance he took us all up the ladder
Because now no-one could say they just don't have the talent
Saw a need in our communities and jumped into the battle
And this brother was doing it in English and Latin
So don't let them ever tell you that the same dreams can't happen.
And I wouldn't be surprised if they spat in his face
But James Robinson Johnston remained on the case
And he never forgot the community in his practice.
So many of our leaders turn their backs and try to fatten their wallets
He fought for the people who no-one thought mattered.
[...]
And maybe it was tough to be happy struggling so hard to succeed
And it can't have been easy always being the token only
Who knows of the pressures that must have left him lonely.
But history teaches us that in the present we learn from back then
When the biggest cause of death for young black men is from other black men
And so the lesson I take from his life is something essential
No matter what your condition you have so much potential
Remember so many black men who die how he died
Could have lived the same credentials
So let's stop being content with being told we belong in the basement
Our life is not defined by some predestination
In fact James Robinson Johnston show us that it's full of surprises
So we need to keep fighting for programs that build on his foundations
Like the Transition Year Program that guides us to university education
So let's commit to expanding its classes so more can participate
And let's not rest until we have a zero per cent drop out rate
And let's create the IB&M program in every school across the nation
Because we need black lawyers and judges to advocate for us
Reforming the courts where we are disproportionately jailed
And let's not rest on our laurels until we've fought against all discrimination
Let's make sure we have black students graduating in force from every university
And that they feel supported
And let's see us excelling in more than music and sports
So let's start fundraising for black studies courses
So our youth can learn about people like James Robinson Johnston
People like them whose histories deserve to be explored
And let's export that knowledge to every elementary, junior high and high school
Until our youth's pride in themselves is restored
Let's have black teachers and professors and black members of the school board
And let's educate the first black mayor and the first black prime minister
Could be from right here.
And let's stop pretending we can't afford to fund black organizations
Or reading programs or housing or daycares
With money from black taxpayers
Let's stop debating whether our needs are important
Because more than a century ago James Robinson Johnston taught us
That when we fight for ourselves our future lies before us
And so let's celebrate his life by moving his legacy forward
James Robinson Johnston, thank you for being there for us.

It is time to do what we know will actually prevent crime. Let us not lead just by locking our citizens up.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Madam Speaker, I applaud my hon. colleague for an excellent speech.

The racialization of poverty in the country is atrocious. In communities in Toronto, the African Canadian communities are very concerned about Bill C-10 and what it will do to their communities. They are crying out for attention to issues of job creation, job training, education and opportunities like that.

Could my hon. colleague speak to why the government is refusing to listen to the overwhelming body of evidence that its plan will not reduce crime?

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Madam Speaker, the government is not interested in evidence. If we look at Nova Scotia, my province, African Nova Scotians make up 4% of the population. They make up 8% of the poor population. That is double.

The Mi'kmaq, our first nations Canadians in Nova Scotia, make up 2% of the population, but they make up 4% of the poor population. Again, that is double.

When we go into the prisons in Nova Scotia, I can tell members who they will see there. It is our first nations citizens and African Nova Scotians. It is the people who come from poverty and who live in communities with so many social problems.

Instead of actually trying to address those social problems and prevent crime from happening, we are just locking people up. That is not the solution by any stretch of the imagination.

Time and time again we have experts who come in and say, “That is not the way to do it”. They are ignored because the government is not interested in evidence. It is just interested in a crime and punishment agenda.