That's it, 50.1.
This amendment relates to what we've heard a lot of talk about in recent weeks. It also relates to what the Quebec Minister of Justice said to the committee when he presented three amendments on behalf of the Province of Quebec that fit very well within Bill C-10.
In his letter of November 15 that was addressed to you, Mr. Chair of the committee, the minister said the following on page 1: Bill C-10 has reworked the declaration of principle of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) to remove the notion of "long-term protection". My first request for amendment concerns subparagraph 3(1)(a) of the YCJA, so as to clarify the notion of "protection" in the statute by preserving the notion of "long-term protection of the public".
This is what you will find in our amendment 50.1. It's this idea of long-term protection of the public that very nicely connects the way justice works and the Youth Criminal Justice Act. It's a system that has been working very well in Quebec for decades.
The minister also recommended two other amendments. One was to replace the verb "encourager" with "favoriser". I understand the various statements made by the Minister of Justice, who feels that it is this amendment that we will finally manage to pass. I would like to say on record that of the three amendments put forward by Quebec, and that we are also putting forward, it is probably the least contentious, and that it would be almost indecent to refuse it.
The third amendment recommends adding a paragraph to section 75 of the YCJA, under which a province's Lieutenant-Governor in Council could, by order, exempt the province from its application, or even set an age older than 14 years to allow its application. We'll come back to this. My colleagues will come back to it later, especially when it comes to clause 185, or something like that.
All that to say, with respect to the idea of long-term protection of the public, I cannot believe that any intelligent person, and everyone around this table is an intelligent person, would not want to include the word "long-term" next to the words "protection of the public". If we don't want it to be long term, I don't know what kind of protection we want. We shouldn't be afraid because it comes from Quebec. We shouldn't automatically say that, if it comes from Quebec, it's not good.
But when we talk about “long-term protection of the public”, that shouldn't be worrisome for the people before us.
I encourage people to adopt at least amendment NDP-50.1 concerning the Youth Criminal Justice Act. I'll allow my colleagues to intervene in the time remaining.