Good afternoon.
My first comments are for Mr. King.
Thank you for being here today. I carefully read your briefs. Mr. King, I was a defence lawyer for 25 years, practising criminal law, and I completely agree with you.
I am tempted to ask you a question. How do you go about reintegrating into society an individual sentenced to 55 years in prison? If he is 25 years old when he enters prison, he will leave prison at the age of 80. When I think of that happening in Canada, my reaction is that this is completely irrational and unreal.
I read your brief carefully, and I paid particular attention to comments about sentencing made by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at a meeting of the American Bar Association, which you quote. This is an issue of great concern to us in Canada.
Our colleagues opposite tabled this bill, and you will hear them talk about street gangs and repeat offenders who get out of prison. People in the party which is currently in office claim that nobody here ever talks about the victims. I have read all of your briefs and I have just one question for you. If each of you could quickly answer my question, that would most appreciated.
We have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that long prison terms just don't work. I don't see how we could have more evidence of that.
What can we do or recommend as legislators? How do we go about reducing the crime rate? I have read and reread Mr. Doob's statistics, and I read the brief: there is a drop in the crime rate. There seem to be peaks: the rate goes up, and then suddenly, it goes down again. We know that there will always be crime in society. That has been a reality since the beginning of time. But how can we prevent sharp rises in crime?
The example of street gangs is the most obvious, because that sort of thing is in fashion now. In Quebec, we have criminal biker gangs, and we still have them.
Do you have any idea what we should be doing to try and bring down the crime rate?
I realize I took a lot of time, but I tried to leave you one minute each to answer the question.