Evidence of meeting #16 for Justice and Human Rights in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was offences.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Thank you.
I know that once this bill becomes law, the crown is obliged to consider an adult sentence for the most serious crimes. Are the most serious crimes specifically defined as to when the crown will have to request an adult sentence?
General Counsel and Director General, Youth Justice, Strategic Initiatives and Law Reform, Department of Justice
Yes, they are.
Conservative
General Counsel and Director General, Youth Justice, Strategic Initiatives and Law Reform, Department of Justice
No, that's a serious offence, and it's one that applies to the pretrial detention provisions.
The serious violent offence is specifically defined in this proposed bill. The serious violent offence includes the four specific offences of murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, and aggravated sexual assault.
Conservative
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you.
I want to preface my question with a little history. I spent eighteen and a half years with the Winnipeg Police Service and was actually one of the trainers on the YCJA.
I know you've already commented on the fact that the YCJA actually limits the number of times that a youth might perhaps be sentenced to an adult facility. I want to be very clear on this. The bill will now prohibit that, which is exactly what my friends from the Bloc Québécois should be very happy about. I would expect they should be voting with us on that, because it is exactly what they were hoping for.
Is that correct? You said this bill will prohibit it from happening,
Senior Counsel, Youth Justice, Strategic Initiatives and Law Reform, Department of Justice
Yes, that's correct.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Excellent.
My mother spent her entire career as a correctional officer in a youth facility. Manitoba Youth Centre is where she worked, and I can assure you I spent a number of Christmases and so on with the inmates. That happened to be something our family did regularly. I know there were adults in that detention facility, because I met many of them. Some of them in fact stayed until they were 21.
My mother has now been retired for some time, but I have a constituent whose son was murdered. They were my neighbours. A young fellow by the name of Paul Cherewick was murdered by a youth. The youth later was released on bail, although he was charged with the murder, and then later went on to stab and almost kill another person. I am very pleased to see that Sébastien's law will address those violent repeat offenders who look to get bail.
The case is still before the courts, so we should generalize, but could you clarify for me how a youth in such a scenario--a youth charged with a murder--would be dealt with by way of bail to protect society under this new bill?
General Counsel and Director General, Youth Justice, Strategic Initiatives and Law Reform, Department of Justice
The bill changes the proposed rules associated with pretrial detention. If a young person has been charged with a serious offence--and murder would certainly be classified as a serious offence--because the possible sentence for an adult is in excess of five years, then the young person can be detained without relying on the presumption of whether he would be put in custody at the end of the day, which was one of the problems for the Nunn Commission. He would be detained if he posed a risk to society—and if there were some suggestion that he was going to continue to be aggressive and stab people, that test would certainly be met—and if there were no sets of conditions that would limit that particular tendency towards violence.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Excellent. I am hopeful that this will have some bearing upon all members of Parliament, because we've seen a number of cases in which, unfortunately, some people who perhaps ought not to have received bail did pose a significant threat and in fact committed further serious crimes against people in our communities.
Is my time up?
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Fast
Thank you, Shelly.
We're going to thank our witnesses for being here and for coming back after the fire alarm.
We're going to suspend for two minutes to allow the room to clear. Then we'll go in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]