Mr. Speaker, thank God I am dreaming. Thank God that I can hope to improve or to speak in ways that can improve society.
The system of justice is for whom? Certain people in the House speak only about the victims. As far as I am concerned from what I have read, the system of justice was conceived to protect and improve society. People who think that hanging the person who killed so-and-so will make the family of the victim better off are not thinking clearly or do not have a grasp of the problem.
We need laws that try to improve society as a whole. It is not by imposing more severe punishment on young offenders that we will improve the lot of society.
In response again to the hon. member, in Quebec we have the capacity to bring in a better system. We already have because in Quebec we understand. We have a sense of humanity in respect of young offenders that allows us to think in terms of rehabilitating them rather than thinking exclusively of putting them into prison and increasing the punishment, which has proven to be totally useless not only for the young but for the older criminals.
We are already on a progressive path in respect of that problem. Bill C-37 is retrograde. It is coercive. It is repressive. It is like going back to the Middle Ages. That is why I say that in Quebec, and especially in a sovereign Quebec, we will probably,
hopefully, be able to do things a bit better. I hope people elsewhere will also be able to do better.
It is not just a question of territorial control. Certainly it is a question of justice. It is a question of cultural sovereignty. It is a way of interpreting justice. Our way in Quebec of interpreting how young offenders should be judged is more equitable or more profitable in the long term for society than forcing young offenders to be submitted to longer terms of imprisonment, which are a total waste of human life.