Thank you very much, Chair.
Colleagues, I am pleased to be before you here at the justice committee to discuss Bill C-26, the tougher penalties for child predators act. This is my 51st appearance before committee.
This particular bill and its proposed amendments seek to ensure that child sexual offenders are held accountable for the horrific crimes they commit against the most vulnerable and valuable members of our society, namely children. This bill proposes to achieve this important goal through a range of different measures. What we're attempting to do here, of course, is bring forward legislation that further supports our government's effort to protect vulnerable members of society.
This bill proposes to achieve this important goal through a range of different measures, which include amendments to the Criminal Code, the Sex Offender Information and Registration Act, as well as the creation of a high-risk child sex offender database.
I'm here with various departmental officials as well as the Minister of Public Safety, Steven Blaney, who shares responsibility for this legislation and in particular for the amendments that will result in a new database. I'll let Minister Blaney speak to those sections of this bill. The objective though, to be clear, is one which all parliamentarians should support. This is clearly a very non-partisan issue, yet some have questioned the necessity for the proposed amendments before us. I want to address some of those questions.
These amendments are necessary because of the sad reality that the instance of child sexual offences continues to rise. In 2013 police reported that sexual offending against children had actually increased again, this time by 6% in 2012 and 2011. Each calendar year saw a 3% increase. As Statistics Canada noted, sexual violations against children was one of the few categories of violent offences in Canada to increase in 2013. This comes from Juristat 2013, which was released in July last year. These numbers we can all agree are cause for concern. We feel compelled to reinforce our response to these serious crimes, and I believe Canadians share these concerns.
Bill C-26 better reflects the seriousness of child sexual offences by proposing to increase mandatory minimum penalties and maximum penalties for many child sexual offences. For example, this bill would ensure that maximum punishment for all hybrid sexual offences against children would be two years less a day for a summary conviction and 14 years on indictment.
In addition to increasing the penalties for making and distributing child pornography, Bill C-26 proposes to make these offences strictly indictable to better reflect their severity. Child pornography offences have devastating and long-lasting impacts on victims, particularly those that are posted on the Internet, where they can reside for someone's lifetime. We have seen in particular how this intersects with the cyber legislation and how often these types of images are used to bully young people in particular to a point where they take their own lives.
Chair and colleagues, this bill would also ensure that it would be considered an aggravating factor to commit an offence while subject to conditional sentence, order, parole, or statutory release. These are long overdue changes that will assist in preventing future offences by known or suspected child sexual offenders. Bill C-26 proposes higher penalties for those convicted of breaching supervision orders. It's our belief, and our responsibility to ensure, that supervision orders imposed on these offenders once they are released into the community are actually observed, and that breaches of conditions imposed to protect children result in serious consequences. The types of conditions, as we know, are that there be no contact, that a person stay away from a certain household, and that there be certain conditions around possession of weapons, alcohol, or drugs.
Those are the types of conditions, Mr. Chair, which, if breached, can and often do result in further offences. Therefore, to achieve that objective, Bill C-26 proposes to increase the maximum penalties for breaches of prohibition orders under section 161, probation orders found in section 733.1, and peace bonds, sections 810 to 810.2. These types of orders often contain conditions intended to protect children, as I referenced earlier. Maximum penalties for breaches of conditions of any of these orders would be increased from six to eighteen months if proceeded by summary conviction, and from two to four years if proceeded by indictment.
Mr. Chair, our government is also committed to ending what are sometimes called sentence discounts for child sex offences. This is to ensure that we recognize each and every child and the offence that has affected their life. To that end, Bill C-26 requires courts to order in all cases that sentences imposed for child pornography offences be served consecutively to sentences imposed for other child sex offences. This bill would also ensure that offenders who sexually abuse multiple children do not receive sentence discounts just because the sentences are at the same time for the offences involving multiple victims.
Further, Mr. Chair, Bill C-26 would clarify the text found at subsection 718.3(4) of the Criminal Code, which contains the general rules regarding concurrent and consecutive sentences. Its current wording is the result of an amalgamation of rules that predate Confederation and as such, requires clarification and modification, so we are taking this opportunity to do so.
Bill C-26 also proposes to codify certain sentencing rules applicable to the imposition of concurrent and consecutive sentences. For example, one such rule provides for the imposition of concurrent sentences for offences committed as part of the same criminal transaction, also referred to as the "same event or series of events" rule.
However, courts have also acknowledged that consecutive sentences should be imposed in certain circumstances even if the offence in question was committed as part of the same series of events or separate events. This bill would recognize two of these circumstances. An offence committed while fleeing a police officer would be served consecutively to any other sentence arising out of the same series of events, and a sentence imposed for an offence committed while on bail should also be served consecutively to other sentences imposed. There is a precedent to proceed in this fashion.
Mr. Chair, Bill C-26 will also amend the Canada Evidence Act to ensure that spouses of individuals accused of child pornography offences are compellable witnesses for the crown. The testimony of an accused spouse may be required to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, such as, for example, where child pornography is found on a home computer.
In conclusion, Mr. Chair and colleagues, and just before I turn it over to Minister Blaney, our government recognizes that criminal legislation alone is an incomplete response to child sexual abuse and that the criminal justice system's response to sexual violations against children must be multipronged or holistic.
This bill, Bill C-26, forms an integral part of the overall response, but I'm particularly pleased that our government has allocated over $10 million for 21 new or enhanced child advocacy centres now to address the needs of child and youth victims of crime. I've visited a number of these centres, as I'm sure many on this committee have, to see how these centres and these programs are assisting in the recovery of victims, in particular young victims who have in many cases undergone considerable trauma as a result of sexual offences.
That is just another example of the overall response we're taking as a government. In particular, I commend all those who are working with young victims on the special needs that they require.
With that, I will turn it over to Minister Blaney.
Thank you.