Evidence of meeting #18 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 brunswick.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
I just wanted to see that you agreed with me. Thank you.
I also wonder what you think about the possibility of a judge sentencing a young person being allowed to look at the history of that young person's encounters with the law, even when they don't result in offences. Do you agree with that or not?
12:55 p.m.
As an Individual
Yes, I agree because that would at least give them a good idea about what the person was before. That was not possible in the case of Sébastien's murderer. They could not check his record. Otherwise, we could have known that he might be able to commit such a violent crime.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
I agree with you. I know it sounds like kind of an odd question, but the reason I ask it is that no less a person than the Attorney General of New Brunswick sat in the same chair you are sitting in and told this committee that he did not think a judge should be able to look at those patterns of previous criminal conduct that didn't result in convictions.
Those are my....
I'm sorry; did you have something further to add on that?
12:55 p.m.
As an Individual
At the end of the day, it is as if we are saying that young people are never responsible for their actions.
12:55 p.m.
As an Individual
It is trivialized indeed. But it can still show the young person's journey before he gets to that point. We trivialize that. We think that, at the age of 16 or 17, the brain of a young person is not developed enough to understand that he is causing harm. I fully agree with checking the records.
And we have not been protecting our society after Sébastien's murder. All these individuals continue to roam the streets. They stabbed someone else in Brossard. Luckily, he did not die. There is still the fact that there were two boys after Sébastien. One of them was not 18 when Sébastien died.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Fast
In fact, your time is up.
It is so seldom that we actually hear from victims. I think that Canadians and your government should be listening to victims more often. I think we'd get a much better picture of the challenges facing us in the criminal justice system.
Again, to both of you, thank you.