I'm glad we have Justice officials.
Clearly, we have seen a substantial rise in extreme youth violence. The propensity for youth to commit serious violent activity is disturbing on so many levels. When the YCGA was first introduced almost 25 years ago, the majority of cases that I was either defending or prosecuting at a young age involved typical young teenager mischief-related charges: shoplifting, spray painting, getting into simple assaults with peers.
You didn't read, and you didn't hear about, 12- and 13-year olds arming themselves with knives and accessing illegal weapons, discharging those weapons, maiming people, killing people or stabbing people. This is the state of youth in our country today. Leaving aside a potential review of the effectiveness or the ineffectiveness of holding these youths accountable under the YCGA, any ability to expand what I thought all along was a very weak, ineffective and narrow set of circumstances by which violent offences were defined under the YCGA, any attempt by any parliamentarian to reflect the realities of what's happening on our streets with violent youth to include weapon-related offences I think is a positive step in the right direction.
I enthusiastically support this reasonable amendment from my colleague from the Bloc, Monsieur Fortin, to address the reality that's happening in this country.