Justice Committee on Feb. 4th, 2026

[Roman Baber, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

I don't see G-12.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

I have a G-12.

Do you have it?

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

Can we say “G-7 to G-11” right now? Then, when we get to G-12—

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

I'm seeking unanimous consent to apply the vote on G-7 all the way to G-11.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Do we have unanimous consent to apply the vote on G-7 all the way to G-11?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Shall G-7 to G-11 carry?

(Amendments agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

That takes us to CPC-12, if I'm not mistaken.

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

On a point of order, I believe we skipped over a bunch of clauses in doing that, so we'll see.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Yes, I'm talking out loud, which I shouldn't do, but you're quite right.

Shall clauses 47 to 57 carry?

(Clauses 47 to 57 agreed to)

Clause 58 is now where we get to amendment G-12.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Can we apply the same vote, seeing that you have your copies of G‑12?

[Roman Baber, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

This again just applies to the form, yes?

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

That's correct.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings]

(Clause 58 agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Now we're at clause 58.1, which has amendment CPC‑12.

Go ahead, Mr. Brock.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations, ON]

The heart of CPC‑12 adds an annual DOJ report on judicial interim release. It requires the minister to table an annual report on the state of judicial interim release, including outcomes and compliance, recidivism data, analysis of effectiveness of release conditions, accessibility and disparities across groups.

One thing that we have heard, Chair, consistently at committee and what I've heard consistently across this country, particularly from law enforcement, is about a lack of data collection, a lack of data, period, being available. Questions were put by me and some other members to a lot of judicial officials, including police officers, about the effectiveness, if any, on Bill C‑48 from the 44th Parliament.

Again, the government promised that this was going to be a significant movement forward in terms of detaining violent repeat offenders. Anecdotally, the evidence simply does not bear that out. These individuals were being released at a great frequency.

Anywhere where we can obtain data, but particularly as parliamentarians, particularly when we build in a review clause in this particular bill, is a step in the right direction. I know there's a review clause effectively five years after proclamation of Bill C‑48. We're not quite there yet, but it would be very helpful at review stage if we had simple data, some basic data from the DOJ, encouraging the provinces to supply and gather their data that can be shared amongst provinces.

Specifically, we're asking for that consideration. I think it's a good thing. Again, I would be dismayed and shocked if my colleagues from the other parties did not see the benefit and rationale behind this amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Seeing nobody else, shall CPC‑12 carry?

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Is it passing on division?

(Amendment agreed to on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(On clause 59)

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Now we're on to BQ-10, which is clause 59.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Chair, the purpose of this amendment is to ensure that crimes committed by minors with a firearm are considered violent offences. Up until now, these crimes have been considered non-violent offences. However, we think anything involving a firearm should be considered a violent offence. Pretrial detention should therefore be considered in these cases. That's why we're including them by means of BQ‑10, which you have in front of you.

That's in the definition of “violent offence”. I'm sorry, it's 12:15 a.m., so my thoughts might be a bit muddled. The idea is to include offences committed by minors and involving a firearm in the definition of “violent offence”.

I have nothing more to add on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you, Mr. Fortin, no need to apologize either.

Mr. Brock.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations, ON]

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.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you, Mr. Brock.

Mr. Lawton.

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

I may ask Monsieur Fortin to chime in after, depending on the response. I've read this, but I just want to make absolutely clear here that I understand correctly that the offences referenced in (d) of the amendment are actual firearms crimes, and that we're not talking about some of the more administrative offences that can sometimes come along with firearms ownership. I was just hoping to get confirmation on that, especially noting that section 93 of the Criminal Code, which is possession at an unauthorized place, was not included, so I assume that's the reason why.

[Samantha Reynolds, Acting Senior Counsel, Youth Criminal Justice Division, Department of Justice]

Although these offences fall under the Criminal Code, I'll maybe let my colleague answer.

[Matthew Taylor]

As I understand the motion, all of the offences that are listed in proposed paragraph (d) are offences that are found in part III of the Criminal Code.

If I take subsection 95(1), for example, possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm, loaded or easily loaded, that offence has been interpreted by the courts to apply to situations where somebody who has a licence to possess the firearm possesses it in a place they're not authorized. They're authorized to possess it in their house, but they keep it at their cottage, for example.

There are other offences—if I understand Mr. Fortin's objective here—that exist in the Criminal Code and relate to firearms or the use of firearms. For example, section 85, “Using firearm in commission of offence”, is another part III offence.

However, then you can look to other parts of the Criminal Code, like subsection 244(1) and subsection 244.2(1), which describe use offences, in which you discharge a firearm at somebody, intending to cause bodily harm.

On a quick scan, I can see that there are some offences that are not included there.

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

Thank you.