Debates of June 2nd, 1994

Arms Smuggling

[Michel Bellehumeur, Bloc, Berthier—Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Solicitor General of Canada.

According to an article in this morning's edition of Le Soleil , the Solicitor General's office is in possession of an RCMP report that says weapons are being smuggled into the country on CP freight trains returning from the United States. According to the report, the point of entry for the smuggled weapons is Montreal, with the Kahnawake reserve being their ultimate destination.

Given that the source of this briefing note is his own department, can the Solicitor General tell us why RCMP authorities have not stepped in yet to stop the smuggling?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure my hon. colleague that further to my inquiries, my department insists that it has no knowledge whatsoever of the existence of such a briefing note. Let me assure the hon. member that the RCMP, along with Customs, will take the necessary measures to resolve this situation.

[Michel Bellehumeur, Bloc, Berthier—Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my supplementary is also for the Solicitor General. Are we to understand from his answer that the RCMP, as hinted by Le Soleil , has not put a stop to the smuggling operations which involve the use of warehouses on the Kahnawake reserve because it has not been authorized to do so by the federal government?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times, the RCMP has every right to do its job anywhere in the country. There are no "no go" zones. It does not need the government's permission to do its job on native reserves or anywhere else in Canada.

Young Offenders Act

[Paul Forseth, Reform, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.

The minister announced amendments to the young offenders system this morning. His statements do not deal with a reduction in the age parameters of the Young Offenders Act.

How do the announcements of the minister reflect the thrust of thousands of submissions which he says he has received from the recent round of public consultations?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the amendments we introduced this morning in our view reflect those submissions and that consultation very directly.

Among other things, the bill we put before the House of Commons at ten o'clock this morning sends a strong message from the government that crimes of violence will not be tolerated from any age group in society.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Reflecting the consultations and in keeping with commitments the government has given, we have doubled the maximum sentence for first degree murder and increased to seven years the sentence for second degree murder.

We have broadened extensively the sharing of information about young offenders for purposes of community safety. For 16 and 17 year olds, the top age group among young offenders, charged with the most serious crimes of violence we have in fact reversed the onus on the transfer test to adult court so that they must demonstrate they have the right to remain in youth court for rehabilitation purposes.

These and other measures directly reflect many of the themes that were sounded during our extensive consultations with Canadians.

[The Speaker]

Before the Chair goes to the supplementary question, as all colleagues are aware this bill is before the House. I would judge to be in order questions of a general nature such as the last one posed. I would caution that questions not be specific because they are going to be dealt with in the bill.

[Paul Forseth, Reform, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I commend the minister for his willingness to table legislation to make changes.

Will the minister assure the House that the government will stop defending all basic tenets of the current juvenile system and remain open to major amendments such as age of operation if there is community support for change?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the government continues to believe the youth justice system is fundamentally sound, and we support it.

The question of age, as the hon. member knows, and other questions about the youth justice system were expressly put to the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. The hon. member will know, because I have made the letter public and provided copies to members of the House, that I have expressly asked the standing committee to undertake a comprehensive review of the statute and the youth justice system generally after it has reported on the bill I tabled this morning.

One of the subjects I asked the committee to look at was the question of age.

Employment Equity

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance. A study made public yesterday by Statistics Canada shows that women in particular are hard hit by the recession. The drop in labour force attachment of women which has been observed since the beginning of the recession is reversing historical trends. Women between 15 and 24 years of age are the main victims of this recent decline in the female labour force.

Does the Minister of Finance recognize that women, and young women in particular, are being hit harder than anyone else by the current economic difficulties and does he intend to put in place a real job creation strategy that will benefit women as well?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, I share the hon. member's concern over this particular issue. Employment equity is one of this government's primary objectives and we have taken specific steps over the past six months to address this problem.

For example, under the Canadian Youth Service Corps program, participants will be allowed to use $2,000 for day care. We are currently actively negotiating with the provinces to open more day-care spaces. I also hope to table concrete proposals in this House in the fall to address employment equity problems encountered by women.

I hope we can count on the support of the hon. member and her party regarding these specific measures designed to help us reach this highly important objective.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my supplementary question is also for the Minister of Finance. Will the minister recognize that the infrastructure program, the only concrete job creation measure put forward by his government, provides very few opportunities for women in view of the nature of the work involved?

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, we have tried to promote with the provinces and municipalities a mix of projects so that in various sectors of society where unemployment prevails there will be opportunities including opportunities for women.

That point was brought home to me by the secretary of state in charge of women's issues. I assured her, as I assure the House, that we would encourage those applications.

Daycare facilities very much qualify as part of the infrastructure program. There are numerous projects aside from construction where permanent long term jobs are created, and many of them are for women.

We will continue to encourage the provinces and the municipalities to provide that kind of mixture so women in other sectors of society can be employed, because the government's number one priority is job creation.

Young Offenders Act

[Dianne Brushett, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.

Today the minister tabled amendments to the Young Offenders Act by which the sentence for murder has doubled. Sixteen and seventeen year olds accused of serious crime will automatically be transferred to adult court unless they can prove they should stay in youth court, and the identities of young offenders will be more available.

In the past the minister has said that we must concentrate on rehabilitation of youth and give them a second chance. Will the minister tell the House-

Immigration

[Art Hanger, Reform, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

In early March the minister arranged for a meeting at Chateau Montebello to discuss immigration policy consultation. However a reading of the summary of the meeting indicates that something other than public consultation was discussed.

Will the minister admit that the purpose of this million dollar so-called consultation process is to change public opinion rather than respond to it?

[Sergio Marchi, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely false.

The Reform Party has advocated as one of its prime motivating reasons for being here opening up the process of government to those who wish to discuss and debate the issues of the day. The government has opened up the consultation process on immigration policy to an unprecedented level since the green paper in 1976.

For a two-day period we took approximately 40 to 45 Canadians from a variety of disciplines in western, northern, central and eastern Canada to talk about two things: how we consult fellow Canadians on immigration and what are the issues we need to consult on. No more, no less.

[Art Hanger, Reform, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the document speaks for itself and I quote from it:

The public education aspect of the consultative process will require some careful thought-neither governments nor NGOs enjoy sufficient credibility to effectively convey the "facts" on immigration to Canadians-the media could be "constructively engaged in the process".

Mr. Speaker, does this sound like consultation to you? How does the minister defend what appears to be a cynical and manipulative approach to dealing with the public on this very important issue?

[Sergio Marchi, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the leader of the Reform Party and that entire caucus we do not need a Conservative member of our office to do any coaching on how we approach the business of government or Parliament.

We are consulting Canadians. We have in train 10 working groups that will be both round table and public. There will be five townhall meetings across the country. There will be eight study groups across the country. I have invited every member of the committee to be part of one of the working groups.

The government has nothing to hide. We want to rally a broad consensus for what immigration can do for the country as a nation building tool.

Young Offenders Act

[Antoine Dubé, Bloc, Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice. Under pressure from some members of the public and the conservative wing of the Liberal party, the Minister of Justice followed up on the Liberal Party's red book and tabled a bill toughening the provisions of the Young Offenders Act.

Can the Minister of Justice assure us that his bill respects Quebec's laws and policies on youth protection, as Quebec's National Assembly demanded last month?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we are fully aware of differences of opinion on this law and we are also aware of regional disparities. We know that Quebec's approach to enforcing the law has clearly proven itself. We think, however, that the changes in this bill give each of the provinces enough flexibility to adjust and administer the law while taking their particular circumstances into account.

[Antoine Dubé, Bloc, Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister admit that his bill sends the message that young offenders must go to prison to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, that is not true at all. In fact, our proposed amendments to this act focus on the rehabilitation of young offenders.

Among other things, we have proposed changes to the statements of principle that will expressly state that the interests of society are best served by the rehabilitation of offenders.

Instead of just proposing the automatic transfer of 16 and 17-year olds, which some would have us do, we suggested in this bill that they be brought before the court one at a time for a judge to make that decision. Most particularly, in the case of non-violent offences we have introduced specific measures that would require the court to resort only as a last step to custody and to focus instead on community based rehabilitative dispositions.

Therefore I disagree fundamentally with the premise of the hon. member's question. I say that this bill reflects a balance between a strong message against violence and rehabilitation of the offenders.

Lighthouses

[John Cummins, Reform, Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport.

In a five-year period ending in 1991, British Columbia light stations came to the aid of the public over 32,000 times. These incidents range from rescues to offering pilots emergency weather reports.

Does the minister agree with the commissioner of the Coast Guard who says that lighthouses in British Columbia are no longer essential?