I think it's important to put on record that young people make mistakes. This is what I find sad in all of this. I'm not talking about people who commit horrible crimes. I'm not saddened by the fact that we are making things a little more difficult for them, that we are extending the time before they have the right to this, even though I find it strange logic. We want these people to become contributing citizens to society again and want them to find jobs, but we put all possible obstacles in their way. We can't say it enough: we are talking about people who have paid their debt to society. The message we are sending them now is quite simply: so what. We aren't talking about someone who has three strikes against him, we're not talking about a notorious reoffender where a mechanism is already in place. We're making sure that this type of person isn't "pardoned". We'll have to get used to not using that expression. It's as if we are putting a big stamp on their forehead saying "Guilty for the rest of your life. Remember that it's just a suspension".
I understand what Mr. Woodworth said earlier. He said that it's almost a privilege and that it can be withdrawn, but I will repeat that 96% of them have never lost the pardon they have received. It's as if we are telling them that we will always see them as guilty individuals and that we will make sure that that image of them always exists somewhere.
It's a shift that is not surprising given the government in power, but that does not seem to make our streets and our communities safer necessarily because this hardened position will certainly have an impact on rehabilitation.
Thank you.