My question is for Ms. Lorraine Berzins and Ms. Jane Griffiths, representing the Church Council on Justice and Corrections. First of all, I am surprised by the fact that the Roman Catholic denomination, which is a member of your council, has changed certain things. Like Myron, I am somewhat troubled. So I am going to ask you some questions.
My question is for both of you, so you can decide who answers. Currently, in the Montreal area, street gangs use young men to recruit young women. The young women are attracted by drugs, and using drugs is a non-violent crime, on the face of it. They then attract young men, who begin committing robbery at age 12 or 13. They put weapons into their hands and they continue. Subsequently, they infiltrate a certain social setting and resort to domestic violence. Gang rape occurs within these groups. Because of all of that, the justice system cannot provide us with the picture of safety that it should.
I am not even talking about sexual assault. I mentioned robbery and armed robbery, for example. Stealing $1,000 from a poor person is equivalent to stealing a million dollars from a rich person. It is also terrifying when someone breaks into the home of people over 65 who are alone. They just open the door, and the senior is frightened. Imagine! I do not understand your apparent desire to maintain conditional sentencing. I understand your position, but conditional sentencing has been around for a long time and those are the results.
I am going to tell you a quick story. An individual was under house arrest for one year. The first third of the sentence was 24 hours a day, with permission to go shopping, etc. The second third was from a certain time to another time, and in the last third, there was no curfew. This individual was a drug trafficker, but with no previous record. This individual was living in a $500,000 house. The sentence was house arrest, in a $500,000 house with T.V., pool, servants, meals, etc.
Do you think that this kind of sentence is a deterrent? Do not think that it does not happen. It happens more often than you think. It is not just poor people who get house arrest, there are a lot of rich people too. Do you think that this kind of sentence deters people or inspires confidence in the justice system?