Thank you.
On young offenders legislation, I think Bill C-10 is a start. It certainly isn't where I would like to see it. I would like to see it be more proactive. I would like to see greater emphasis placed on early intervention for those children who are at risk.
We have the tools today to identify those individuals. We just don't have the will, the political will, to make the decisions to direct these individuals into leading a productive life.
That petition that I created while my son was severely hurt was signed by 1.3 million Canadians, Canadians who are frustrated that they cannot do anything, that the law will not support them, that our government will not support them and their child, when their child is victimized by someone under the age of 18.
Those people who hurt my son--the day after they hurt my son, they were back in school. They were back in school with a bigger badge of courage than they had before they hurt my son, because now they were bragging about what they did. That's actually how they were caught.
The ultimate sanction, after $4.5 million of taxpayers' money and almost four years of legal arguments, was a five-and-a-half-month sentence.
The individuals who did this, and I can't name them because they're convicted under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, continued to victimize and hurt other young people while they were out on bail. And when they were rearrested, they threw a credit card at the justice of the peace.
That's the kind of respect young people who are predisposed to violent behaviour have for the justice system of this country.