Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for your attendance, and thank you to your officials from the department.
Minister, after a decade of catch-and-release Liberal bail, repealing mandatory minimum penalties and other hug-a-thug laws, Canadians are understandably scared. Since 2015, human trafficking has increased by 84%, sex assaults are up almost 76% and violent crime is up almost 55%.
Bill C-16 egregiously continues the Liberal soft-on-crime agenda by empowering judges to ignore literally every mandatory prison sentence in the Criminal Code other than for murder and treason. Liberals are now trying to allow judges to ignore them for aggravated assault with a gun, human trafficking and multiple firearm offences, including extortion with a firearm, weapons trafficking, drive-by shootings with a restricted or prohibited firearm and more.
Parliament sets mandatory minimums for these heinous crimes for a reason, but if your government allows judges to ignore them, there will be nothing mandatory about them, period. The passage of this provision would be a total abrogation of our duty as elected representatives to keep our communities safe. Conservatives will never vote for lighter sentences for serious offenders.
Will your government immediately split off this poison pill so we can all get back to work on making this bill better and keeping Canadians safe?