Evidence of meeting #17 for Justice and Human Rights in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was indigenous.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Randeep Sarai
Thank you, Ms. Latimer. Thank you, Mr. Garrison.
Next, for four minutes, we have Mr. Cooper.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witnesses.
I'm going to address my questions to Mr. Brochet.
Bill C-5, in addition to eliminating mandatory jail time for very serious firearms offences, also eliminates mandatory jail time for serious drug offences, including trafficking and the production of schedule I and schedule II drugs, like heroin, cocaine, fentanyl and crystal meth. As a chief of police, does this concern you?
President, Association des directeurs de police du Québec
As police chiefs, we are very much aware that drug use is more of a public health issue than a public safety issue. For this reason, we believe that drug possession and use should not be trivialized. That said, both the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Association des directeurs de police du Québec are open to the idea of decriminalizing—
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Sorry, sir, just to interject, I want to be clear: This bill is not about possession. We're talking about trafficking. We're talking about the production. We're talking about the drug dealers and the drug pushers who are putting out on the streets these poisons that are killing Canadians every single day. That's just to be clear regarding the substance of the bill.
President, Association des directeurs de police du Québec
Actually, that was the second part of my answer.
First of all, I wanted to make it clear that we do not want to penalize people for the possession and use of drugs.
As far as drug trafficking is concerned, we do not think that the penalties should be reduced in this respect. We must understand that drug trafficking is a scourge in our community. Organized crime members are steeped in drug trafficking; it is their livelihood. In addition, drug trafficking has a huge impact on other types of crime. For example, people will commit other types of crime to get drugs. So we shouldn't be reducing sentences or passing laws that would reduce sentences for drug trafficking and so on.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Great. Thank you for that.
The third component of Bill C-5 is the expansion of conditional sentencing for very serious offences, including sexual assault, kidnapping, human trafficking, arson for a fraudulent purpose. I'd be interested in your thoughts on that, as a police chief.
President, Association des directeurs de police du Québec
As chief of the Service de police de Laval, I experienced a crisis related to sexual exploitation a few years ago. In Quebec, we are making the fight against sexual exploitation a priority, because many minors are taken and exploited by unscrupulous individuals. It is obvious that crimes such as those you mentioned must be severely punished. If we were to decide instead to impose suspended sentences on those who commit this type of crime, this could send an extremely difficult message to the victims.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
There were some who claimed that with what we're talking about, with these types of offences, all this would do is allow non-violent offenders to serve their sentence out of jail. When we're talking about some of these crimes, I don't think we're talking about non-violent offenders. Would you agree?
President, Association des directeurs de police du Québec
Yes, the number of offences and the severity of the offences in the bill concerns us.
In my opening statement, I wanted to focus on guns because they are very much a problem right now. However, if the measures were applied in human trafficking or sexual assault cases, the repercussions for victims would obviously be concerning.
Conservative
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Okay.
I will just ask the chief if he has anything further to add, other than that this bill sends a bad message.
President, Association des directeurs de police du Québec
No, I have nothing to add. I got my message across, in other words, we have major concerns when it comes to gun violence. I want to thank you, for that matter, on behalf of Quebec's police chiefs, for giving me the opportunity to convey that message.
We have to put a stop to gun violence, so we need to deal with the issue. We shouldn't send the message that we will be very tolerant towards people who use guns.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Randeep Sarai
Thank you, Mr. Cooper, and thank you, Mr. Brochet.
Next we'll go to Ms. Brière for four minutes.
Liberal
Élisabeth Brière Liberal Sherbrooke, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Brochet, I listened to your answers, and I want to make clear that getting rid of mandatory minimum penalties does not mean that offenders will go unpunished. I get the impression that you don't trust judges to hand down sentences that are proportionate to the crime.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Randeep Sarai
Ms. Brière, I'm sorry to interrupt. I just got a message that your mike was not selected.
If you check on your screen, you go to the little arrow beside the mute button on the screen. Just make sure that you have your headset picked and it's not the mike from the computer.
Liberal