Mr. Speaker, I listened to the dissertation by the hon. member for South Shore. As I was listening to the hon. member, I was struck with the fact that there is an inconsistency between the sentencing aspects of young offenders under the provisions of Bill C-37 and the sentencing provisions under Bill C-41, another government bill having to do with sentencing circles for aboriginal Canadians.
The idea under the Young Offenders Act is that the anonymity of the young offender is the watch word of the whole thing. Once the young offender makes a mistake or does not make a mistake but does something very deliberate, creating an offence of significant magnitude against someone else, the whole idea is that we have to somehow make sure we can save this young offender from recidivism, making sure we get them started on the right track.
That is great. It is a good idea. It is motherhood and apple pie. The problem is that it demands almost total anonymity. The young offender's neighbours cannot be informed of the offence. The newspapers cannot be informed of the offence.
At the same time we have sentencing circles requiring positive peer pressure. We would return someone to their community so their sentence would be handed down by their elders. They would have to face members of the community they have injured or disgraced.
We have the whole notion of the principle that motivates human beings. Is it recognition and reputation or shame and disgrace? On one side under Bill C-37 we have complete anonymity. On the other side we have peer pressure, the opposite of anonymity. I wonder if the hon. member for South Shore would comment on this inconsistency and tell the House and Canadians how sentencing circles which would require peer pressure from the community could work for aboriginal Canadians, while non-aborignal Canadians are expected to change their ways in complete anonymity.