Mr. Speaker, the statistics I referred to come from the Canadian Centre for Justice. We had the Victims of Violence group before us in the committee. I do not know from where it got its figures.
There is no doubt there are still some serious crimes in the country. I deny that there has been an increase in violent crime among youth over the years. When we look at the statistics from the police and from the Centre for Justice statistics they show that is not the case.
Despite that I sympathize with the public that is seriously concerned with youth crime, whatever there is. He asked if it was not better, once they crossed the line and committed serious offences, to have tougher measures.
I do not agree with that and I will tell the member why. I do not agree with it because it does not work. They are doing it in the southern United States: three strikes out and you are an outlaw. They have a much higher rate of crime than we have in Canada.
The southeastern state of the United States have brought back capital punishment and have mandatory sentencing. They execute somebody in the morning and they have three or four murders in the afternoon. The countries doing exactly what the member is suggesting have the worst rates of violent crime in the western world.
What the member is suggesting has led to no improvement in the situation. That is why I am not for it. A much better approach is the approach being used in western Europe in countries like Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, Italy, et cetera, and in Canada to a certain extent. It is to concentrate on the causes of crime, to concentrate on rehabilitation and correction, and not simply on harsh, hard, long penalties that do not protect the public. If they did protect the public we would be able to walk the streets freely in Miami, Dallas, New Orleans
and many other cities which we cannot do simply because they are doing what the member suggests.