Bill C-75 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and other Acts and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to, among other things,
(a) modernize and clarify interim release provisions to simplify the forms of release that may be imposed on an accused, incorporate a principle of restraint and require that particular attention be given to the circumstances of Aboriginal accused and accused from vulnerable populations when making interim release decisions, and provide more onerous interim release requirements for offences involving violence against an intimate partner;
(b) provide for a judicial referral hearing to deal with administration of justice offences involving a failure to comply with conditions of release or failure to appear as required;
(c) abolish peremptory challenges of jurors, modify the process of challenging a juror for cause so that a judge makes the determination of whether a ground of challenge is true, and allow a judge to direct that a juror stand by for reasons of maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice;
(d) increase the maximum term of imprisonment for repeat offences involving intimate partner violence and provide that abuse of an intimate partner is an aggravating factor on sentencing;
(e) restrict the availability of a preliminary inquiry to offences punishable by imprisonment for a term of 14 years or more and strengthen the justice’s powers to limit the issues explored and witnesses to be heard at the inquiry;
(f) hybridize most indictable offences punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years or less, increase the default maximum penalty to two years less a day of imprisonment for summary conviction offences and extend the limitation period for summary conviction offences to 12 months;
(g) remove the requirement for judicial endorsement for the execution of certain out-of-province warrants and authorizations, expand judicial case management powers, allow receiving routine police evidence in writing, consolidate provisions relating to the powers of the Attorney General and allow increased use of technology to facilitate remote attendance by any person in a proceeding;
(h) re-enact the victim surcharge regime and provide the court with the discretion to waive a victim surcharge if the court is satisfied that the victim surcharge would cause the offender undue hardship or would be disproportionate to the gravity of the offence or the degree of responsibility of the offender; and
(i) remove passages and repeal provisions that have been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada, repeal section 159 of the Act and provide that no person shall be convicted of any historical offence of a sexual nature unless the act that constitutes the offence would constitute an offence under the Criminal Code if it were committed on the day on which the charge was laid.
The enactment also amends the Youth Criminal Justice Act in order to reduce delays within the youth criminal justice system and enhance the effectiveness of that system with respect to administration of justice offences. For those purposes, the enactment amends that Act to, among other things,
(a) set out principles intended to encourage the use of extrajudicial measures and judicial reviews as alternatives to the laying of charges for administration of justice offences;
(b) set out requirements for imposing conditions on a young person’s release order or as part of a sentence;
(c) limit the circumstances in which a custodial sentence may be imposed for an administration of justice offence;
(d) remove the requirement for the Attorney General to determine whether to seek an adult sentence in certain circumstances; and
(e) remove the power of a youth justice court to make an order to lift the ban on publication in the case of a young person who receives a youth sentence for a violent offence, as well as the requirement to determine whether to make such an order.
Finally, the enactment amends among other Acts An Act to amend the Criminal Code (exploitation and trafficking in persons) so that certain sections of that Act can come into force on different days and also makes consequential amendments to other Acts.

Justice

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for this opportunity to rise and debate this important issue. I also want to thank my colleague opposite for raising a concern that we actually share: the safety of Canadians and keeping violent repeat offenders off our streets.

First, we must recognize the tragic murder of 29-year-old Constable Greg Pierzchala. Our thoughts are with his family, colleagues and the Haldimand—Norfolk community. No family should endure such a loss. Such tragedies remind us that keeping Canadians safe is our solemn duty.

It is important to clarify a persistent misunderstanding about former Bill C-75. Contrary to some claims, Bill C-75 did not alter the fundamental law of bail in Canada. What it did was codify key principles already established by the Supreme Court of Canada. The law has always been clear: No one should be released on bail if doing so would compromise public safety or undermine confidence in the administration of justice. That is clearly established under subsection 515(10) of the Criminal Code.

In fact, the argument presented is self-defeating. The member suggests that repealing former Bill C-75 would improve public safety. In reality, repealing Bill C-75 would actually make it easier for some individuals, like those previously convicted of intimate partner violence, to obtain bail.

Let us be clear about the Conservatives' position over the last six months. First, they campaigned on repealing all of Bill C-75, including protections for victims of intimate partner violence. When we called them out, they suddenly shifted and said that they only wanted to remove the principle of restraint from former Bill C-75, and now their own justice critic publicly states on social media that he is open to amending the principle of restraint. That is three different positions over the last six months. It is hard to take them seriously. They clearly have no plan, no consistency and no idea what they are doing.

Meanwhile, on this side of the House, the Minister of Justice has spent months working in consultation with law enforcement, provincial and territorial partners, constitutional experts and victim advocacy groups building a consensus on how to keep violent offenders off our streets and accountable to the public, and protect individuals and victims.

Canadians want solutions, not slogans. They deserve careful, evidence-based policies grounded in Canadian law and not in imported ideas. What do I mean by “imported ideas”? It is striking to see the types of proposals that the Conservatives continue to push, whether it is the provision of their bail bill, Bill C-242, the shoot-first policy or a three-strikes law. These measures have all failed in every jurisdiction where they have been tried in the United States. If the Conservatives had been paying attention to the last election they lost, they would know that Canadians want laws made here in Canada, in consultation with provinces and territories, that actually work in our communities.

This government is also investing in federal policing, including the hiring of 1,000 new RCMP personnel and expanded resources to combat financial crime, organized criminal networks and online exploitation. These investments reflect a broader strategy, one that combines enforcement with prevention and recognizes that community safety depends not only on strong laws, but also on strong institutions.

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to rise today on behalf of the good people of Haldimand—Norfolk to speak to a serious crisis in our country. Ten years of irresponsible Liberal crime and justice policies have led to the need for communities across Ontario and across Canada to grapple with growing violence and brazen crime in their neighbourhoods. The consequences of these policies are real. Since 2015, violent crime is up 55%, firearms crime is up 130%, extortion has skyrocketed 330%, sexual assaults are up 76% and homicides are up 29%.

When I asked the government to address its record and to commit to reversing laws such as Bill C-75, which allowed repeat offenders back on the streets, I referenced the tragic case of 29-year-old Greg Pierzchala. He was a young constable killed by a repeat offender released on bail. The assassination of this young police officer in the line of duty happened in Hagersville, Haldimand County, which is a community that I represent. His loss rattled the community. The outpouring of sadness, the support and the tributes for this young constable at the beginning of his career and of his life were both heartbreaking and deeply moving.

Too many families are grieving with unimaginable pain because they lost a loved one to violent crime. The truth is that the same violent offenders are released back into the community, sometimes within hours of their arrest. Because judges are constrained by Liberal laws to impose the least onerous conditions possible, this so-called principle of restraint compels the courts to release at the earliest possible opportunity and impose only reasonably necessary bail standards, even when there is a strong chance of reoffending.

Instead of addressing this very real concern of mine, the parliamentary secretary ignored it entirely. When more than half of Canadians no longer feel safe in their own neighbourhoods, my constituents expect seriousness from the government, not non-answers and silence.

The uncomfortable truth is that the current Liberal government has undermined safety and justice in Canada by imposing its ideology on the justice system, resulting in preventable deaths. Canadians, including victim advocates, provincial governments and police associations, have long been calling on the government to fix what it broke. Will the Liberals finally adopt our full Conservative plan to end the scourge of violent crime, by passing the Conservative jail not bail act and repealing Bill C-75?

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L’Érable—Lotbinière, QC]

Madam Speaker, before I begin my speech, I want to take a moment to thank Divya Dey, who is participating in the parliamentary internship program and who gave me the great privilege of choosing me for her first stint with a member of the House of Commons. She is a brilliant and dynamic young woman from the Greater Toronto Area who speaks excellent French and who chose a member from a rural region in Quebec. I hope that many people from Toronto will do the same thing and follow her example in order to discover the beautiful regions of Quebec.

Today Divya helped me research and write this speech. Obviously, I added the partisan side of my speech myself because interns have to remain non-partisan during their time with us. I wanted to warn people that some of the passages are my own creation. I congratulate all the interns on their achievements and thank the organizers and sponsors of this wonderful program, which gives young Canadians the opportunity to experience first-hand the decision-making process on our beautiful Parliament Hill.

Let me get back to today's topic, namely Bill C‑12. Before going into the details of the bill, I would like to take a step back and look at the big picture of what this Liberal government has done in 10 years. Since this Prime Minister was elected, I believe that we have witnessed the largest pothole repair operation in Canadian history.

What is a pothole? After a long, hard winter, when the snow melts, we discover that our roads are full of holes. There are big ones, little ones, huge ones and potholes in the making. There are holes everywhere, especially in the municipalities. Just before summer, at the turn of spring, municipal road crews get to work filling as many holes as possible as quickly as possible to keep them from getting bigger, to prevent cars from breaking down and to ensure pedestrians do not get hurt. I have no doubt that all this is done with the best of intentions.

However, anything goes when it comes to filling holes. They act quickly. They know that what they are repairing will not really be repaired because it is just a quick fix. They will have to come back a little later. They intervene for appearances' sake, knowing full well that the repairs are cosmetic, which means that instead of being fixed, the problem will get worse year after year. The following year, they will have to come back because the hole will be a little bigger. If it is only a quick fix, they will have to come back again the year after that.

What does this have to do with Bill C‑12? Before the members opposite ask me that question, I will explain. It is very simple. It is as though we are coming out of an extremely long 10-year winter during which the Liberals dug holes everywhere. There are potholes in every department after 10 years of Liberal mismanagement. Whether we are talking about justice, immigration, passports or delays at the Canada Revenue Agency, there are potholes everywhere after the long Liberal winter.

I did not talk about the biggest pothole of all, and that is the country's finances. That is the biggest pothole of all with a deficit that has doubled and inflationary spending that has created many smaller holes in the pockets of all Canadians, who can no longer make ends meet at the end of the month. Canadians are $200 away from being in the red, from no longer being able to pay their bills at the end of the month. They are struggling and they are being forced to make tough choices at the grocery store.

Today, the Liberals would have us believe that spring is right around the corner. They have looked under the snow after 10 years in power, and what they saw was really not pretty. Their woke Liberal ideological policies have caused a great deal of damage, and Canadians will be left to pay the price for years to come.

As I said, a pothole repair operation is a superficial fix that is not used to repair holes for good, but rather to simply fill them in. After how badly Bill C-2 failed, Bill C‑12 is a superficial fix to tackle the damage caused by the Liberals over the past 10 years. By the way, this part was not written by my intern. I just want to clarify that.

Let us talk about immigration. The government made our businesses dependent on temporary foreign workers. Now, with Bill C-12, the government is going to punish the very people it made promises to when they decided to come settle here in Canada. This is not just about compassion. It is contradictory. The government made our businesses dependent on these workers and now it is trying to break that dependency without a plan, leaving businesses and workers in limbo. Most importantly, the government is forgetting that those affected are human beings with children, families and a dream, a dream of settling in Canada.

In the beginning, the temporary foreign worker program had the very specific goal of addressing temporary labour shortages. However, under the Liberals, this program grew and it became a permanent solution to problems that the government refused to address. This program was working well and meeting its objectives, but the Liberals created so much chaos and neglected the program so much that, today, people who should be able to go through the proper channels no longer have time to do so because the system is so broken.

Bill C‑12 is not fixing the problem of temporary workers. This bill would make it harder for all these people, whom we welcomed with open arms after the former prime minister sent a tweet inviting them to come to Canada. This message was heard across the country, but today, it is making many people unhappy. We have all heard about it in our riding offices. This improvised approach hurt people, it hurt families and it hurt businesses.

After a decade of the Liberals' absolutely disastrous mismanagement of the immigration system, the number of refugee claims has risen to 296,000 today. That is huge. Think about it. Ten years ago, we only had 10,000 and now, we have 296,000. At the current pace, it would take the government 25 years to process the 296,000 pending files. Let that sink in. It is absolutely unacceptable. It is a disaster. The Liberal government's attitude to immigration as a whole has created some really desperate situations that are heartbreaking for the people experiencing them.

Let us now turn our attention to crime. I will let the numbers speak for themselves. After 10 years of Liberal governance, the total number of violent crimes is up 49.84%. Homicides are up 28%. Gang-related homicides are up 78%. Sexual assaults are up 74%. Extortion is up 357%. What action did the Liberals take last winter to protect Canadians? They took no action. On the contrary, they made the situation worse by passing legislation like Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, which set criminals loose, let abusers serve their sentences at home and forced judges to let criminals go as fast as possible.

Sadly, since taking office seven months ago, this Prime Minister has done nothing to act on his promises. Bill C-12 may close a few loopholes, but it will not quiet the fears of Canadians who have never before seen their country change as much as it has in the past 10 years of this long Liberal winter.

Time is flying by. The Liberals would have us believe that spring is coming. However, they have not even started fixing the potholes, and winter already seems to be right around the corner. Never before have we seen a pothole repair be botched so badly. This Prime Minister promised to spend less, but he is spending twice as much as his predecessor. He promised to maintain the deficit, but we now know that it will be much bigger than the one predicted by Canada's most spendthrift prime minister before him. They are not repairing potholes; they are digging more and making them bigger. We were seeing the first signs of spring, but instead we are in for another storm of Liberal spending.

Just today, the Prime Minister confirmed in the House that he will run a generational deficit on November 4. They are not fooling us. Bill C‑12 will plug a few holes, but the root causes of the Liberal legacy of the past 10 years will unfortunately remain.

Public Safety

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the people of Riding Mountain.

The people of Swan River are experiencing an alarming increase in violent crime, which has threatened the safety and well-being of families across our region. A recent report by the Manitoba west district RCMP found that over an 18-month period, just two offenders in Swan River were responsible for over 150 offences.

The petitioners continue to suffer the consequences of soft-on-crime Liberal policies like Bill C-5, which repealed mandatory jail time for serious crimes, and Bill C-75, which forces judges to release repeat violent offenders right back onto the streets. The petitioners in the Swan Valley want to see an end to the Liberals' reckless catch-and-release policies so that criminals can stay behind bars. That is why the people of Swan River are demanding jail, not bail, for violent repeat offenders.

I support the good people of Swan River.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address concerns about public safety and bail reform. Canadians are rightly concerned about repeat and violent offending. They expect our justice system to keep communities safe while upholding the rule of law.

Let me be clear. Former Bill C‑75 does not require courts to release violent offenders at the earliest opportunity and under the least onerous conditions. That characterization is simply false. Bill C‑75 modernized and clarified the bail provisions in the Criminal Code. It ensured that non-violent, low-risk individuals were not detained unnecessarily, while giving judges the discretion to detain dangerous individuals when public safety was at risk.

These reforms codified the principle of restraint, a long-standing rule of criminal law that was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2017 in the Antic decision, which requires pre-trial detention to be ordered only when necessary to ensure the accused's attendance in court, to protect the public or to maintain confidence in the administration of justice.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the presumption of innocence and the right to reasonable bail unless there is just cause for detention. These are the cornerstones of a free and democratic society. That said, the law is clear: No one should be released on bail if they pose a flight risk or a danger to the public, or if their release could undermine confidence in the justice system.

In 2024, Parliament strengthened these protections through former Bill C‑48, which expanded the reverse onus provision for intimate partner violence and made targeted amendments to better deal with repeat offenders and violent offences involving firearms and other weapons.

The federal government is also investing $1.8 billion over four years to hire 1,000 new RCMP employees, increase federal policing capacity, and crack down on financial crime, online fraud, and organized criminal networks. This includes increasing the recruitment allowance and allocating new resources to the recovery of illicit assets.

Our government is working with the provinces, territories and local law enforcement to address the root causes of crime while investing in affordable housing, mental health and substance use supports, and programs for at-risk youth.

Stringent federal laws are only a part of the equation. Bail is a shared responsibility. The provinces and territories have to ensure that courts have sufficient resources, that justices of the peace are properly trained and that community supervision programs are in place. Without these supports, even the most robust federal laws are destined to fail. That is why our government continues to call for cross-jurisdictional collaboration. Public safety requires coordination, investment and evidence-based solutions, not slogans or scapegoats.

Canadians deserve safe communities and a fair justice system. Let us move forward together, with targeted, practical reforms grounded in principles, not in politics. Let us turn away from fear and division.

Let us focus—

[Jacob Mantle, Conservative, York—Durham, ON]

Madam Speaker, in response to my question in June about the over 70% increase in major assaults in Ontario since 2015, the Secretary of State for Combatting Crime assured me new legislation was coming that would solve this problem. It is now well past June, and we still do not have that legislation, but I understand it is coming.

In fact, the situation is much worse than just a few months' delay. We have had 10 years of the Liberal government, and in fact, it has created the mess with bail through Bill C-5 and Bill C-75.

The Prime Minister has made some comments about what the legislation would include, but I have a very simple question for the parliamentary secretary. Would the new legislation repeal the principle of restraint that currently requires violent offenders to be released “at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions”, yes or no?

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, frankly, what I find irresponsible is that the other day when we heard the Prime Minister's announcement on crime, there was no attention paid to removing the principle of restraint, which was endemic to Bill C-75, the very principle that is allowing for catch and release to continue. I would ask the members opposite to put some forethought into this to make sure this principle is removed so we can keep criminals off the streets.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as I continue my speech, I want to re-mention my nephew, Cody Kirkland, whom we lost in the middle of the last federal election campaign. He passed away due to an accidental overdose, and fentanyl was the cause, so it is close to home. I know folks in my community and folks across the country recognize how important this fentanyl crisis is and what is going on.

I hope the Liberals across the way will pay attention to this. I hope they will not have to have a crisis or a tragedy in their own families before they realize just how bad it is across the country. Police have uncovered superlabs operating right here in Canada, synthesizing fentanyl from precursor chemicals imported from China. Last fall, RCMP officers dismantled the largest and most sophisticated drug lab in Canadian history, capable of producing multiple kilograms of fentanyl each week, along with caches of loaded firearms, explosives and half a million dollars in cash.

This is the reality. Fentanyl is not just a drug problem; it is a public safety and national security crisis fuelled by organized crime and enabled by weak borders. It is a humanity problem, yet Bill C-12 is silent on the tools police and prosecutors actually need. There are still no new mandatory prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers. There are still no tougher penalties for gangsters who use guns to commit crimes, and the Liberals still allow house arrest for serious offences that endanger lives. Research and experience have shown that clear, consistent sentencing, including targeting mandatory minimums, deters repeat offenders and restores public confidence in justice.

We can already anticipate that the Liberals will soon stand and claim they are bringing forward new bail reform legislation, but Canadians remember the Liberal bail reform they already brought in through Bill C-75, instructing judges to release offenders at the earliest opportunity and under the least onerous conditions. In practice, it became a green light for repeat violent offenders to cycle in and out of the system, with tragic results in communities across Canada. Canadians do not need more Liberal announcements about bail. They need consequences that mean something and a justice system that protects victims and stops protecting repeat violent offenders.

We have a border system that cannot enforce removals and an immigration system so backlogged it invites abuse. We have a justice system that treats violent offenders as victims while law-abiding citizens face more restrictions than ever.

Conservatives believe in secure borders, a fair and orderly immigration system and a justice system that protects Canadians before it protects criminals. We believe Canada should continue to welcome those fleeing genuine persecution, but compassion must be paired with order, fairness and the rule of law.

Bill C-12 may contain measures worth exploring, but Canadians cannot take the government's assurances at face value anymore. The privacy risks are serious, the enforcement gaps are dangerous, and the Liberal record demands skepticism, not blind trust. That is why Conservatives will carefully review the legislation, line by line and clause by clause, to ensure that it strengthens our borders, upholds privacy and defends public safety.

Public Safety

[Jagsharan Singh Mahal, Conservative, Edmonton Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, under the Liberal government, crime and chaos is out of control. Extortion has exploded into one of the fastest-growing crimes in Canada, with threats against small business owners and innocent citizens. Just this weekend, in my riding of Edmonton Southeast, an innocent family had their house shot up after it was misidentified by gangsters. This is unacceptable. It is a direct result of the Liberal soft-on-crime agenda.

Canadians deserve to feel safe in their own homes. That is why Conservatives want to restore mandatory jail time and repeal the dangerous Liberal catch-and-release laws, Bill C-5 and Bill C-75.

To the innocent family whose home was shot at, that should not have happened. My fellow Conservatives and I will fight hard to stop the crime so that criminals like the ones who attacked them will face real consequences, not just a slap on the wrist.

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Parkland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his hard work for his constituents. We know that he is doing an excellent job in northern Ontario.

It is clear that the ideological bent of the government is not to empower our frontline officers to do their job. The government is one that is beholden to a woke ideology, wherein it passes bills like Bill C-75, which tells judges to let criminals out at the earliest convenience with the least number of restraints. It is clear that it is policies like this that are being called out by frontline police officers and by police associations, and that are causing the havoc and violence we are seeing on our streets. Our party stands behind our—

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Parkland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to wish the entire House a very happy Trafalgar Day, a day on which we remember the sacrifice and brave leadership of Admiral Horatio Nelson, who gave his life in defence against Bonapartist tyranny. In addition, I would be remiss if I did not mention that today the Royal Canadian Navy is celebrating Niobe Day; 115 years ago today marked the first day of a Canadian warship, the HMCS Niobe.

It is a privilege to rise today to speak to Bill C-12, the strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act. We are discussing the bill here today instead of Liberal Bill C-2, because Bill C-2 was met with considerable opposition from members of the House and from civil society groups that made it clear that the legislation would not be able to move forward without significant revisions.

Therefore, today we are debating Bill C-12. Despite the sweeping powers the government proposed in Bill C-2, the Liberal government did not even bother to consult with the Privacy Commissioner about the impacts that the legislation would have on the privacy rights of Canadians. It is only because of the accountability provided by members of the opposition in the House that we were able to push that legislation back so we could focus on legislation that would at least try to repair the damage of the last 10 years of the Liberal government by introducing changes on the border.

The objectives of the bill, I will say for those constituents of mine who are watching at home, are several. They include but are not limited to creating an expedited pathway for the Minister of Health to add precursors chemicals used in the production of deadly drugs such as fentanyl as controlled substances under the Criminal Code.

Over the past few years, we have seen the devastation of the fentanyl overdose crisis in Canada. At the public safety committee, we have been hearing about some of the many gaps we have in this country, including testimony that has indicated that the non-resident import program is being used to smuggle precursor chemicals into Canada with less stringency at the border, which is creating a situation where Canada has become a major producer of fentanyl, which is being exported. We have heard recent stories of countries like New Zealand and Australia being the recipients of drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine. Clearly this is not the reputation that a great country like Canada wants to have.

Another part of the legislation seeks to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to eliminate the designated countries of origin regime, which has been identified as a loophole. It would give the minister the powers to specify that required documents are needed to support a refugee claim. It would require the suspension of certain refugee protection proceedings if the claimant is not present in Canada, something I think should be common sense; somebody should be present in Canada if they are claiming refugee status here.

It seeks to change the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to increase the maximum monetary penalties for those charged under these acts. It also seeks to make certain changes to the Sex Offender Information Registration Act to allow for increased reporting of the offender's description, as well as changes to the circumstances and frequency of reporting. It would also allow for information previously collected to be disclosed if it can reasonably be expected to assist in the prevention or investigation of a crime of a sexual nature.

Once again, I think these things are long overdue. We probably need to go even further, but we are certainly not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one. Even with the second attempt at the legislation, the Liberal bill still fails to address the key issue of bail reform. We know that catch-and-release is alive and well for people who traffic in fentanyl and use illegal firearms, using our porous border to victimize more and more Canadian families.

We know that the sentencing provisions that were passed by the Liberal government under Bill C-75 and Bill C-5 have made it so that there no mandatory prison times for the people who traffic fentanyl, and there are still no new mandatory prison times for gangsters who use illegal guns to commit crimes, despite the Liberal government's incessant campaign against law-abiding gun owners. We also know that house arrest is still being used extensively in cases relating to violent criminals. Once again, this is unacceptable.

That said, I think we can all agree that strengthening our border is critical, and that is why legislation is desperately needed in this area. After 10 years of reckless Liberal policies, our border is broken, and we need to fix it. The Liberals' soft-on-crime agenda has made Canada a destination for international organized criminals trafficking in drugs, weapons, people and stolen cars. Gangs are committing brutal crimes on our streets every day.

The public safety committee has looked at the issues in depth, and we have repeatedly heard it is the broken bail system that has contributed to the crisis. Organized criminals have chosen to make Canada their home because of our weak laws.

We also know the government's failed immigration policies have assisted in making Canada a destination for international organized crime. In the past, the government has removed visa requirements over the objections of law enforcement agencies, which stated that the removal of visas would increase the risk of organized crime's taking root in this country. The government moved forward with it anyway, and it is critical that the policies be reversed so we can once again make Canada the safest country in the world.

I want to be clear that nothing I am saying today is a criticism of our brave frontline law enforcement officers in the RCMP and the CBSA. We know they are doing their absolute best. We have heard from police associations in Ontario. I have heard from RCMP members in my riding, when I was out knocking on doors during the past election, for example, that they are arresting people and seeing them back out on the street mere hours after being arrested for drug offences. How demoralizing this is for our frontline officers.

We have heard from Mark Weber of the Customs and Immigration Union, the union that represents CBSA workers, that morale at the CBSA is at the lowest level he has ever seen. This is after 10 years of the Liberal government. We now see that the government keeps recycling its promises to keep hiring more border services officers, but it is clear much more needs to be done to strengthen our border and our security service.

Canada has the largest undefended border in the world, which is something we can all be very proud of as a country, but the lack of resources for the CBSA to fulfill its role has seen a rise in smuggling and human trafficking in this country and people coming to this country to pursue their criminal activities. It has skyrocketed over the past decade.

The CBSA has been sounding the alarm, but the government has not been listening. There is plenty of evidence to substantiate these points, but I will pick one specific example. At the immigration committee, IRCC officials stated that they believe there are hundreds if not thousands of violent criminals who are here illegally, violent criminals who are not citizens or permanent residents. They are temporary residents who are violent people, and officials have no idea where they are. When I asked the customs union employee, they said that there are only a couple hundred CBSA officers who are tasked with trying to track down the thousands of violent criminals who are at large in this country. This is unacceptable.

On the non-violent side, we know there are currently around 50,000 people who have come to Canada on student visas and whose visas have now run out. They are here illegally, and CBSA does not have the resources to reach out to these people or to remove these people who are now in this country illegally. Despite the shockingly high figures, as I said, there are something like only 300 CBSA officers who have been dedicated to this gargantuan task.

One of the reasons CBSA is suffering so much, as its union said, is that it is drowning in middle management. It is not getting the frontline officers it needs to do the job. This is endemic in everything the Liberal government has done for the last 10 years. Let us look at the great paradox, where we have a government where the bureaucracy has grown by 45% across the civil service yet there are fewer frontline workers in critical areas like the CBSA, the RCMP and the Canadian Armed Forces than ever before. How does that make any sense? The government is padding middle management and upper management, to the detriment of frontline workers who are doing the dangerous jobs we need them to do to keep us safe.

Action is desperately needed, and the largest beneficiary of the government's failed immigration and criminal policies has been organized crime. Canada has become a low-risk, high-reward environment. Criminals choose the path of least resistance. The strict border controls put in place during the pandemic saw the Canadian market shift from being an importer of fentanyl to becoming a domestic producer. CSIS has found that synthetic drugs are increasingly being produced in Canada using precursor chemicals from China. This is what experts are saying. It is estimated that about 80% of the precursor chemicals that are being used in fentanyl—

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Ponoka—Didsbury, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to rise today on behalf of the residents of Ponoka—Didsbury.

After a long decade of nihilistic Liberal rule, chaos and disorder reign supreme in our streets. Criminality may be only one of the many problems Canadians face, but it is a significant one.

A survey by Abacus Data released this year, in 2025, found that 46% of Canadians ranked crime and public safety among their top concerns. This can be contrasted with an Ipsos poll taken in June 2015, the year our previous Conservative government left office, which found that 15% of Canadians ranked crime and violence among the issues on the national agenda at the time. I will let Canadians ponder those two statistics to find out just who has been a better steward of peace, safety and security in this country.

Canadians understand that the situation is untenable. After all, it is they who have had to shoulder the burden of this rise in criminality in our communities. For context, since 2015, violent crime has spiked significantly, and it is up nearly 50%. That is not all; crime of almost every category has seen an increase: Sexual assaults are up nearly 75%, homicides are up 28%, gang-related homicides and organized crime have increased by 75%, violent firearms offences with illegal guns are up 116%, extortion is up 357%, auto theft is up 46%, and trafficking is up nearly 84%. Fraud, homicide and anything we can name are all going up. I could continue, but I think my colleagues get the picture.

This upswing in violence is not a coincidence; it is a result of soft-on-crime policies and a porous border. It is the realization of the law of unintended consequences brought on by a decade of bad policy, informed by a world view that cares more about optics than it concerns itself with the real-life effects of its own self-serving ideological agenda.

We now have a so-called government that is presenting bills in the House that purport to fix this collection of self-inflicted issues that Canadians face. These are the same problems that the members across the aisle from me created. In 2015, our Conservative government oversaw a Canada that had its lowest total crime rate since 1969. Unfortunately, the last 10 years has seen this progress almost completely erased.

It is the hypocrisy of the government that it has opposed and demonized those who support our hard-on-crime agenda while now implicitly acknowledging that Conservatives were right all along.

How did we get here? In 2022, Bill C-5 was passed. In this piece of legislation, the Liberal government removed the mandatory minimums on 14 different Criminal Code offences. These were common-sense penalties on dangerous offences that were instituted and put in place by our Conservative government; these were bills that I proudly passed when I sat on the other side of the House. They include using a firearm or imitation firearm in the commission of an offence, which people do not have to go to jail for anymore in Canada, thanks to Liberals. Possession of a firearm or weapon, knowing that its possession is unauthorized, so illegal possession of a gun, for example, is another offence that people no longer have to go to jail for.

Possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition is an offence that people do not have to go to jail for anymore. Possession of a weapon obtained by the commission of an offence, so if someone steals a gun, they do not have to go to jail. Weapons trafficking, possession for purposes of weapons trafficking and smuggling, so someone can smuggle weapons now, in this country, and not go to jail. Importing or exporting knowing it is unauthorized is another example of smuggling; someone can traffic smuggled firearms, guns, ammunition, weapons or anything we can name. Discharging a firearm with intent and discharging a firearm recklessly are offences that people no longer need to go to jail for. If someone wants to commit a robbery, they might as well do it with a gun, because they do not have to go to jail for that either in this country anymore. Did I not just say that extortion is up 357% since 2015? The mandatory minimum penalty for extortion with a firearm is gone thanks to Bill C-5 and thanks to the Liberals and the NDP, which supported them at the time.

In fact, these policies were all informed by expert opinion, yet the Liberals did not seem to care. Instead, before passing Bill C-5, they doubled down and passed Bill C-75 during their majority tenure from 2015 to 2019. The bill eased bail provisions and legislated the principle of restraint, which was codified in the Criminal Code for police and courts to ensure that criminals would be released at the earliest possible opportunity with the least amount of restrictions. Essentially, this favours release over detention; it is precisely these two bills, along with a copious number of bad decisions made, that created the revolving door in our justice system by which offenders are free to continue to terrorize communities.

While the Liberals were making life easier for criminals by passing Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, they increased their attacks on law-abiding firearms owners, who are in no way responsible for any of this crime wave. They did so with a trifecta of bills with zero public safety value. These bills include Bill C-71, which created a backdoor gun registry; the 2020 order in council, a massive list of newly restricted firearms; and Bill C-21 in 2023, which created a national freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns for law-abiding citizens and sport shooters, as well as a new prohibition on many long guns used for hunting and sport-shooting purposes. Since the passing of these bills, the government has not stopped adding firearms to the restricted list.

The Liberals have now embarked on their so-called voluntary assault-style firearms compensation program, the gun grab, which is a program to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens. It completely misses the mark by letting criminals go free and going after people who follow the law. If implemented, this costly and ineffective gun buyback is estimated to cost at least $5 billion, even though only $742 million has been allocated to it. With that kind of money, the government could easily fund such programs as acquiring modern scanning technology at our 119 ports of entry to secure our border.

I have an example to share that I also brought up during the committee hearings on Bill C-21. In the Cayman Islands, a high-efficiency scanner was bought. Someone can drive right through it in a truck, or a sea-can can go through it. It can be put at any port of entry. It will scan a container. It is safe for anyone who happens to be going through, and it will find all manner of contraband: drugs, people, firearms and illegal weapons. Those are about $3 million U.S. apiece.

The Liberal government is going to spend $750 million to take lawfully acquired property away from Canadians. That is about $500 million U.S. If we divide that by $3 million per scanner, we could easily put 150 of these scanners at our ports of entry to make sure we scan at least 10% of all containers coming in and going out. I think most Canadians would be shocked to realize that we do not scan a single container that leaves our country.

The shocking thing about all of this is that, with the change in administration to the south, the administration has claimed that fentanyl was flowing from Canada into the United States and, as a result, was killing American citizens. We would think a prime minister in Canada would have said the flow of illegal guns across the border from the United States into Canada is killing Canadian citizens, pushed back on the American administration and stood up for law-abiding firearms owners in this country.

However, the Liberals did not do that, because they did not want to admit that it was illegal guns killing Canadians on the street. They wanted to maintain the mantra of going after law-abiding citizens. We know that because the current public safety minister said as much when he thought nobody was listening.

How does all of this relate to Bill C-12? If the last decade is any indication, the government has an issue understanding that policy work is a careful game of trade-offs. When enacting policy, we have to heed the law of unintended consequences and try to understand the downward effects a piece of legislation may have. The Liberals did not do their due diligence on crime, and I do not think they have done it on the border bill.

When Conservatives forced the Liberals to back down on Bill C-2, we did so because we understand that the policies contained in Bill C-2 have unintended consequences and unforeseen ramifications. As with Bill C-2, we believe there could be provisions in Bill C-12 that violate people's freedoms and privacy, and it is our duty to ensure that Bill C-12 receives the proper scrutiny it deserves at the committee stage to ensure Canadians do not pay for another boondoggle of unintended, or not unintended, consequences.

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the bill, as I said earlier, would do only half the job. It should be addressing the fundamentals of fixing up the borders, fixing up the Criminal Code and repealing Bill C-75 and Bill C-5 to really discourage criminal acts. We need to fix all these issues fundamentally, not just do a half-assed job.

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the half-measures in Bill C-12 would not address anything apart from what we already have. It would just be patching up bills that should have been repealed, Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, to truly attack the roots of the problems.

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals say that they want to secure our border, but they have filled Bill C-12 with nothing but half measures that fail to target the core issues. They will be unable to combat transnational organized crime when they value the well-being of repeat offenders over law-abiding citizens. They will be unable to get a handle on our asylum system when they value economic migrants with bogus asylum claims over legitimately vulnerable people.

The Liberal half measures in Bill C-12 stem from their continued inability to both set up and enforce disincentives against bad actors. Fundamentally, the Liberals take the maxim of the three wise monkeys to heart: See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. The Liberals do not see the criminals. They do not hear the vulnerable. When they choose not to see the bad actors and not to hear the downtrodden, they by all means speak half measures into being.

Let us first address how Bill C-12 would fail to secure our borders, from a crime angle. I have a simple question: Do hard drugs like fentanyl just magically appear in our country? No, of course they do not. Some group has to produce them, and some group has to distribute them. The drug dealers should not be the only central target for the legislation.

The problem is that lax Liberal laws have altered our Criminal Code to put criminals first. Law-abiding Canadians live in fear, while repeat offenders serially reoffend against Canadian society, knowing there will be no consequences for their crimes.

The Liberals cannot just paper everything over with Bill C-12 while we still live in the madness legislated into being by Bill C-5 and Bill C-75. They are building bridges to nowhere, upheld by pillars of sand. How much longer must the Conservatives bring up the failures of these two bills?

Bill C-75 forces judges to apply a principle of restraint that puts repeat offenders back on the streets. Bill C-5 repealed mandatory jail time for serious offences, like extortion with a firearm or trafficking hard drugs like fentanyl. Thus, not only are we letting criminals with many offences roam free; we are also letting the ones who have performed the most serious offences at the highest frequency roam free. This is the pro-criminal world that the Liberals have legislated into being.

How do we stop the Liberal madness? The first step is clear: Put law-abiding Canadians above the well-being of repeat offenders. When we put hard-working, law-abiding and tax-paying Canadians first, at the top of our hierarchy, the policy suite to serve them unfolds naturally. We must disincentivize the crime that harms our law-abiding society, by locking up the repeat offenders rather than letting them roam free.

It is not hard to understand how disincentives work. When a toddler touches a hot stove and burns their hand, they will learn not to touch the stove again. Through this feedback loop, the child will learn not to repeat the mistake. Human behaviour is like a river flowing down a mountain. We can either dig grooves to enhance the flow down one path, or we can build dams to block the flow down another. The Liberals have been allowing the river of crime to flow unimpeded. We Conservatives plan on setting up some more dams.

Having addressed the failure of Bill C-12 to secure our borders on the drug front, let me redirect attention to how Bill C-12 would fail to do so on the asylum front as well.

Canada's asylum system was set up to protect truly vulnerable people, like those from Hong Kong or Ukraine. We cannot resettle every economic migrant claiming asylum to get a free hotel stay. However, this is our current state of affairs. We have made the asylum route a lucrative one and have incentivized it. We give hotel rooms to people with bogus asylum claims, while hard-working Canadians struggle with housing, health care and jobs amidst a general cost of living crisis, and while legitimately vulnerable people from Hong Kong and Ukraine have been left in limbo on their path to permanent residence, despite already being in Canada.

All that Bill C-12 would accomplish is to shift the burden to the courts, which is another half measure among half measures, as the Liberals choose not to see the bad actors and choose not to hear the vulnerable.

Let me bring my Liberal colleagues the voices of the vulnerable. I was shocked to discover that on October 9, the estimated time for processing individuals under the Hong Kong pathways to permanent residence was revised to being upwards of 10 years. My constituency staff have seen the processing times for cases of applications that have been situated in the IRCC pipeline for years jump from 25 months to 48 months after the October 9 threshold. For those who submitted their application this summer, processing times went from 25 months at submission to 10 years after October 9 . In the best of cases, it is a doubling of processing, and in the worst of cases, it is a quintupling of processing. In all cases, there are lives ruined and families put in peril.

Hong Kongers are a case study of a people that has integrated into our society. They do not take handouts. They are taxpayers who contribute to the system instead of getting free hotel stays on the backs of hard-working Canadians.

The Liberals can secure our borders from their out-of-control asylum system by removing all the benefits. A single action like this would have sweeping effects, and yet the Liberals have chosen the path of half measures.

In conclusion, my message today about Bill C-12 can be expressed in two concepts: incentives and disincentives. All we have to do is to stop incentivizing behaviours we no longer wish to see and to start disincentivizing behaviours we want to end. We cannot secure our borders with half measures that dance around the core problem.

People are the actors; people do things, so to stop bad actors from doing bad things, we must build systems of incentives and disincentives around the bad actors themselves. This is only impossible to do when we actually love and esteem the bad actors above the hard-working, law-abiding and taxpaying Canadians. As it stands, structurally, Bill C-12 does not see the bad actors and does not hear the legitimately vulnerable. Bill C-12 is a bundle of half measures that would not secure our borders.