Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to join the debate on the Young Offenders Act today.
In starting out, my party and my constituents and I look forward very much to seeing the results of the bill being drafted by the justice minister to be tabled in this House. I would express the idea that it is unfortunate that the extensive review process and recommendation process that the former speaker spoke of would not take place before the drafting of the bill so that there would be some real opportunity for change.
I believe the Young Offenders Act was an attempt to balance the approach of the socialistic juvenile delinquents act and the demand to protect society from crime.
I am not advocating the repeal or the abolishment of the Young Offenders Act as some members in society are today. After consulting with individuals within the RCMP and corrections field it is my belief that the fault lies more in the administration of the legislation than in the legislation itself.
Perhaps legislated sentencing grids or mandatory minimum sentences providing less discretionary powers to the courts might be more of a deterrent to young offenders.
I am here to advocate amendments to the act to deal with the 20 per cent of the young offenders this act does not work for. One of the better aspects of the juvenile delinquent act was the ability to charge individuals who contributed to the delinquency of youth. If we brought this measure back it would bring back the responsibility to the parent and would not allow adult criminals, i.e. drug offenders or car theft ring leaders, to hide behind young offenders.
There have been a lot of statistics thrown around here today in the debate and I have a few of my own that I would like to throw into the pot. According to Statistics Canada in 1991, 22 per cent of all federal statute charges were laid against youth. Of the 146,000 charges against youth, 13 per cent or 18,800 of the charges were violence related. Since 1986 the violence related charges have increased by 102 per cent despite a 1.8 per cent decrease in the population of this age group. I think there is a crisis here.
Of all the youth charged approximately 53 per cent were over 16 years and approximately 46 per cent had prior records. Of this 46 per cent 19 per cent had five or more prior convictions. It is this 19 per cent that are the problem we really want to address. This particular group appears to be flaunting the law and hides behind the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The victims of youth offences have been left out in the cold and are not included in the legal process. We all would agree that the victims and families of victims suffer greatly and feel violated, abandoned and unprotected by the Canadian justice system.
I can only ask the previous speaker for the Bloc and a number of other speakers I have heard today how they would feel if their own family were torn apart and destroyed by a repeat young offender with no respect for authority.
I think the recent introduction of youth justice committees and victim service units in parts of my constituency in Alberta is making a difference. For the first time the victims and the community are having a say in the process. I would strongly encourage more victim service units to be developed throughout the country as victims have the ability to have their voices heard in the sentencing of their assailants through the use of victim impact statements and it is making a difference. Victims as well should be financially compensated by their assailants, the guilty party, to the greatest possible extent. It is Reform Party policy that the Young Offenders Act be amended to include: the lowering of the age of eligibility of being charged from 12 to 10 years of age as stated in our motion; offenders aged 16 and 17 would be considered adult offenders; offenders aged 14 or 15 who commit serious offences should be transferred to adult court; the release of names of offenders to the public and to the news media; the holding of parents responsible where it can be shown that a lack of parenting control is evident; that offenders in custody should be required to enrol in adult life skills upgrading programs.
The justice minister and some members opposite suggest that to solve the problems of youth crime we must attack the root causes. These root causes are poverty, permissive social attitudes and the perceived lack of opportunities. I say certainly we must continue to work to resolve these problems but these problems will be not solved quickly if ever.
Society more and more is losing faith in our justice system and demanding immediate change. This demand for quick action is becoming more and more urgent as we witness the dramatic increase in the instances of brutal violent crime like the recent stabbing of a young mother in her home in the city of Edmonton, or the stabbing death of a 16-year old youth in Hull only last week, or the series of drive-by shootings at locations all across the country.
Only two days ago the theft of a large semi-trailer truck by a young offender who went on a joy ride ended in the killing of a mother and daughter right here in Ottawa after trying to escape from the police.
I would wager that almost every member here today knows an example in which an overlenient treatment of a repeat young offender allowed uncontrollable youth to thumb their noses at the system.
Last summer I travelled through my constituency. I recall a particularly alarming example of a juvenile habitual property offender who was sentenced to do community work as retribution for his crimes. This youth was escorted to the community cemetery with a lawn mower and a can of gas and was instructed to cut the grass. When the supervisor returned some time later to check on the progress, not only was the young offender gone, but so was the lawn mower and gas can which was later found to be sold some piece down the road. Sometime later rumour has it that in an expression of frustration this youth was last seen leaving the community bound and towed behind a pick-up truck. This youth went on to reoffend and eventually moved on to adult court, but he never did reoffend in that particular community again.
This example not only demonstrates in a real way the disregard many of these repeat offenders have for the system but I believe it is also an ominous sign of the direction communities and individuals might go if they continue to lose confidence in the criminal justice system to protect their property and their families.
I am sure all members here would agree that vigilante justice is not something that we want to see. Therefore I urge the government to respond to this growing public concern as demonstrated by the huge criminal justice rallies taking place across the country and to move quickly in order to restore public confidence in this most vital criminal justice system.