Excellent. Thank you very much, and thank you for inviting me.
My name is Elizabeth Pousoulidis, and I am the president of AFPAD, which stands for the Association of Families of Persons Assassinated or Disappeared, and that means murdered or criminally disappeared.
It is very hard for us, the victims, to come and speak about our experiences, but it is very important for us to speak. If we don't, nothing will change for us.
Today I sit here as president of AFPAD. I also sit here as a very proud Quebecker and Canadian. We support fully Bill C-10. The reason we support Bill C-10 is that before somebody kills somebody, before there's a murder, there are signs of criminal activity. There is a criminal “binder”, I remember the judge calling it, that is very thick. Before victims, people like me, lose somebody, there is a chance for the murderers to not cause that pain and to not become murderers.
What I see in Bill C-10, and why I'm very happy to see it, is that finally Canada will be tougher on crime. Whoever thinks that being caught with drugs or whoever thinks that a crime that they consider minor does not affect murders and criminal disappearances is wrong. Just check the stats of all murderers and how many times they've come in and out of the justice system.
I commend my country, Canada, for respecting human lives. A lot of times when somebody is murdered, we forget about them. It's all about the criminal, whether it's the justice system or whether it's victims' rights, etc.
My province of Quebec supports this Bill C-10 law at 77%, from the latest information from a poll by le Journal de Montréal. Our province of Quebec is fully aware of what Bill C-10 is. I've talked to many of the members of my association, but also other people who come to our events, and understand why Canada's being tougher on crime.
Mr. Wamback mentioned a lot of families, and we know many of them. A lot of phone calls come in to us because they have nowhere else to turn. These are parents, mothers, who do not know what to do with their children when they know they've taken the wrong road, and unfortunately they go in and out of prison. It's up to the parents to tolerate that, and it's up to the parents to make sure their kids are safe. By “safe”, it means that they don't commit further crimes.
The comments I hear from members of my association and from others are that if their child had been caught before, or if when they were caught they had spent some time in jail, or if they had spent some of that time to rehabilitate, if they had been given that opportunity, then maybe the child would be alive today.
When we talk about the costs of this law, I beg you to talk to any victims about the costs they suffer when somebody in their family has been murdered. We are talking about costs not only to the victims but also, at the end of the line, the taxpayers. If I don't work, I don't pay taxes. So we need to also look at that aspect of costs when we discuss how much this is going to cost our system, our government.
I am a victim myself. I saw my mother bury her child. None of us could work, but all of us were forced to go to work due to financial burdens. All of us have wounds that will never close, and it is our responsibility, no matter how hard it is, to support and to speak about this law.
I commend the government. I thank you very much. This does make me feel a tad safer as a Canadian.
Thank you.