Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm pleased to be before the committee again.
Since this is my first public opportunity to appear before the committee, I want to bring to your attention some changes. I'm proud to say joining mon collègue Daniel Petit is a new parliamentary secretary, Bob Dechert, and I extend to him my best wishes and congratulations. I had the role myself for about four years. It was a great experience for me. Certainly, I am hopeful the experience will be as worthwhile and as valuable to you as it was to me. So I'm pleased to have both of you.
And to you, Mr. Chair, continuing your responsibilities as chair of the justice committee, I again wish you all the best.
I'm delighted to be joined here by John Sims, the deputy minister and the Deputy Attorney General of Canada. Mr. Sims will be retiring. I will miss him. His advice and support to me over these three-plus years have been invaluable. He's an outstanding public servant and a credit to the profession, the department, and the public service of this country. I want to publicly wish him all the best, as I will indicate to him privately. Again, I'm very pleased to have him join me today.
Mr. Chairman, since we were first elected our government has taken action to tackle crime and to protect Canadians. The employees of the Department of Justice have helped us fulfill that commitment through their invaluable advice and tremendous efforts. I greatly appreciate their support and reliability as our government continues to move forward with its crime and justice agenda.
With the help of the department, our government was able to act decisively to crack down on crime and ensure the safety and security of our neighbourhoods and communities. We have brought in legislation to establish mandatory prison sentences for serious gun crimes, to toughen sentencing for dangerous criminals, and to raise the age of protection from adult sexual predators from 14 to 16 years of age. We have targeted identity theft, and we've ensured that criminals serve sentences that reflect the severity of their crimes.
One of the most recent successes in our agenda is the elimination of the two-for-one credit for time spent in jail while awaiting trial, a practice that disproportionately reduced prison sentences for some violent offenders. Limiting the amount of credit granted for time served in custody prior to conviction and sentencing gives Canadians greater confidence that justice is being served and brings truth to sentencing. We remain unwavering in our commitment to fighting crime and to protecting Canadians so that our communities are safe places for people to live, raise their families, and do business. As the recent Speech from the Throne stated, the law must protect everyone, and those who commit crimes must be held to account. Canadians want a justice system that delivers justice.
One of our initiatives is to seek to strengthen the way the youth justice system deals with violent and repeat young offenders. Currently, the system lacks the tools to keep violent and repeat young offenders in custody while awaiting trial, even if they pose a danger to themselves and to society. Whether caused by young offenders or adult offenders, the impact on victims of violent and repeat criminal behaviour is profound. We believe the law must uphold the rights of victims and ensure the safety of our communities. If our justice system fails to do so in any way, we must take action.
Last week, I introduced legislation known as Sébastien's Law to make the protection of society a primary goal of our youth criminal justice system. It will also give Canadians greater confidence that violent and repeat young offenders will be held accountable. It will simplify the rules to keep these offenders off the streets and would require the courts to consider publishing the name of a violent young offender in individual circumstances when necessary to protect the public.
We also take extremely seriously the many instances of child sexual exploitation facilitated by the Internet. The creation and distribution of child pornography are appalling crimes in which children are brutally victimized over and over again. The worldwide web provides new and easier means for offenders to make, view, and distribute child pornography. This has significantly increased not only the availability and volume of child pornography, but also the level of violence perpetrated against children.
Our government has recently proposed a mandatory reporting regime across Canada that will require suppliers of Internet services to report certain information about Internet child pornography, and we intend to do so again in this session. This will strengthen our ability to protect our children from sexual predators and help police rescue these young victims and prosecute the criminals responsible.
Our government has also shown its concern for the victims of multiple murderers and for their families. We firmly believe that the families of murder victims should not be made to feel that the lives of their loved ones do not count. This is why I tabled bills last session that will permit judges to impose consecutive sentences of parole ineligibility for multiple murderers. While there can only be one life sentence for an offender who commits more than one murder, the parole ineligibility period, which is 25 years in the case of a first degree murderer, could be imposed consecutively for each subsequent murder.
In addition we continue to seek the elimination of the faint hope clause of the Criminal Code. By saying no to early parole for murderers, our government hopes to spare families the pain of attending repeated parole eligibility hearings and having to relive these unspeakable losses over and over again.
Both of these pieces of legislation would acknowledge the value of every life taken by this most serious of crimes. This legislation would ensure that the criminals responsible serve a sentence that more adequately reflects the gravity of their crimes, and it would better protect Canadians.
Mr. Chairman, our government remains dedicated to further strengthening of our justice system, particularly when it comes to drug producers and traffickers. We intend to reintroduce legislation to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to impose mandatory sentences on drug producers and traffickers, specifically targeting the criminal enterprise of gangs and other violent criminal organizations, because drugs are the currency of organized crime and gangs. Having this legislation passed would better protect communities and send a clear message: if you produce and traffic in marijuana, if you run grow ops in residential neighbourhoods, if you threaten the safety of Canada's communities, you will serve jail time. Canadians should not be asked to tolerate criminal activity that attempts to flourish at the expense of law-abiding Canadians and those vulnerable to the lure of drugs.
Mr. Chairman, in recent years I've spoken to victims of various fraud schemes and white-collar crime, and they clearly attested to the gravity of these crimes. Fraud can have a devastating impact on the lives of its victims, not only as it affects their financial security but also through feelings of humiliation for having been deceived into voluntarily handing over their life savings. These schemes can be every bit as devastating as a physical assault.
The determination of these victims to call for action on fraud in the face of their emotional turmoil reaffirmed the need to act quickly and effectively against this type of crime. That is why we intend to reintroduce legislation that cracks down on white-collar crime and fraud and increases justice for victims. We will amend the Criminal Code to provide tougher sentences for the criminals responsible. It will require judges to consider requiring offenders to make restitution to victims in all fraud cases and allow judges to take into account impact statements from communities as well as individual victims when sentencing an offender. Through these provisions, the voices of victims of crime will be heard and their concerns will be taken seriously in the courts.
Mr. Chairman, for the Department of Justice to continue supporting the government, it needs to meet its obligations to its employees with regard to compensation. It is therefore requesting $47.5 million in the supplementary estimates to pay retroactive salary increases for its lawyers, an increase mandated through a recent arbitral award.
To conclude, Mr. Chair, I'd like to express my appreciation and thanks to you and your committee for the important work you do. I will do my utmost to ensure that the funds received by the Department of Justice will be spent wisely to bring results and to respond to the needs of Canadians for an improved justice system and safer communities.
Thank you. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
