Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would move that Bill C-31 in clause 23 be amended by replacing line 39 on page 12 with the following:
who was 18 years of age or older on the day
In short, to provide some comment in terms of the background of the amendment.... As we just had a previous amendment dealing with the whole age issue, Mr. Chair, and given what happened in terms of the vote, I suspect there's a very good chance that this particular amendment will also be defeated.
I did want to emphasize one other point. I do come to the table with some experience with youth. I was a chair of a youth justice committee and a member of the youth justice committee for about 10 to 12 years. So I've dealt with a lot of young offenders between the ages of 12 and 18, because a vast majority of young offenders are in fact under the age and go up to the age of 18.
In dealing with a number of youths directly, I have found quite often there's a sense that the best way sometimes you help a youth is to take them out of an environment and put them into a new environment. Then they seem to have a change in attitude. The reason why I say that is because when we have refugees who are 17 years old who are coming to Canada—and in this case it might be via a boat and they land in Canada—there is this sense of change. The environment is significantly different from the environment they've been taken from.
We have an opportunity at an early age, as much as possible, to make that a positive experience for someone who's 17 years old. By doing that, at the end of the day, the mental condition of that youth is going to be far better if in fact we keep them out of a detention centre. It has already been pointed out that a fair number of these detention centres are at more than capacity. So if they're at capacity, this then means they're going from the detention into a provincial corrections institution.
I have had the opportunity to tour provincial correction facilities in the province of Manitoba. I wouldn't want to see a 17-year-old refugee come to Winnipeg and end up in the Headingley jail, Mr. Chair. That would just be wrong. I think if you were to take a group of people into the Headingley facility...and it's no reflection at all on the staff at that particular facility. I must say, they do a wonderful job, given the facility they're in. But it is not a good environment for a youth who's trying to start over again in a different country.
I say that because I want members, in particular government members, to reflect on the mental conditions and the opportunity that is lost by us not dealing with this youth at an age, 18, when, as the vast majority of the world would recognize, adulthood starts. I recognize that for youth in different countries sometimes that maturity level is heightened at a much younger age because of their environment, but I think in the western world, 18 is the age. That is the age we have been going by for many years here in Canada. It's the age of majority, it's the age at which people get to vote, and so forth. I think if we would have had more psychiatrists and so forth, mental health workers, they would concur with the thought that 18 is a significant age in terms of a youth's maturity.
With that, I leave it with the table. It's just a reflection on other comments we've heard, and I look forward to the vote.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
(Amendment negatived)