Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to address Bill C-37, an act to amend the Young Offenders Act.
This is an issue about which my constituents feel very strongly. That is probably true across Canada. Not a day goes by without my office receiving a letter on this subject. Two weeks ago I presented a petition with 16,300 names calling on Parliament to revise this act in a more meaningful way.
The organizer of the petition is a constituent of mine, Mr. Bernard Castet. Mr. Castet became involved in this issue after his young son, André, was brutally and senselessly beaten and killed by two youths.
It is hard enough for a parent to handle the loss of a child but Mr. Castet's grief was further compounded by the fact that these two young offenders would be tried in youth court for this vicious and unprovoked attack.
It is a sad reality of the current act that Mr. Castet had to go to court to fight the system in an effort to have the two youths raised to adult court where, if found guilty, they could receive the type of sentence that would match the crime. After months of hearings, the court has now ruled that these two accused killers will be tried as adults. However if the government had accepted Reform's amendments to the bill, others like Mr. Castet would not have to go through this same trauma.
One such amendment called for any young offender charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated assault to be tried in adult court. This is also the substance of Mr. Castet's petition.
The Reform Party, along with Mr. Castet and the more than 16,300 people who signed that petition, believe such an amendment would be a positive step, not only in terms of meting out punishment to fit the crime, but also as a deterrent factor. Admittedly the justice committee did put forward a compromise amendment but it is still less than what the public demands and desires.
Reform also called for a lowering of the age definition by two years from 12 to 17 years inclusive to 10 to 15 years. Most people, except the government, seem to agree that if a person is old enough to get a driver's licence and have many other societal responsibilities, that person is old enough to be accountable for his or her actions in adult court. Such a change in age limits would also prevent young offenders from slipping through the cracks of the current legislation.
Mr. Castet and his 16,300 petitioners also agree with the Reform Party that the extra privacy provisions of the Young Offenders Act are inappropriate for violent or repeat young offenders. In these cases, the publishing of names would make protection of the community the number one priority.
Reform also supports amendments to make parents more accountable for the actions of their children. This accountability would take the form of compensating victims for property crimes if it can be demonstrated that there was not a reasonable effort to exercise parental control.
While Reform members advocate such things as stiffer penalties for serious crimes, we are not looking to lock up all young offenders nor do we believe that even the most hardened young offender is beyond rehabilitation. A further Reform amendment posed just such an approach, calling for rehabilitation opportunities to be emphasized in a disciplined environment.
I would like to take a minute to address another item that I have brought up in the House before. I would like the House to consider seriously the whole matter of the punishment of young offenders.
Looking at the situation facing us today, young offenders are put away but they lose none of their rights. They can go with their hair whatever length they want. They have colour TV. They have all the rights in the world. There is no sense of punishment or discipline. A movement was started in the United States called boot camps. I approve of the thrust of this movement because it disciplines young offenders. They cannot go into a punishment facility with their own agenda. If they are found guilty of something they have to follow the agenda of the boot camp.
I have stood here before and spoken of my experience in the past, not as an inmate of a Canadian army detention barracks but as an observer of one. The basic thing about a detention barracks was that the inmate obeyed every rule immediately. After having served his minimal time he swore that he would never go back to that facility again. He was not abused. He was not beaten. He was simply made to toe the line. This works.
The other big benefit of this scheme where inmates are disciplined and made to follow our agenda and not their own agenda is that it is cost effective. Young offenders or anyone else for that matter, even an older offender, can be put in such a facility and in 30 days they are ready to obey the rules of society. It will have an effect that 60 days or 90 days or half a year of doing what they want in a youth facility will not have.
I will wind down that portion of my pitch to the House in pleading with all members to please let us take a look at the effectiveness of such discipline on young offenders particularly, but on others as well.
In conclusion, in carefully reviewing the bill I fully appreciate the efforts the Minister of Justice has made to try and satisfy the various special interest groups which make up the Liberal Party. It is a formidable task. However, in doing so the minister has put forward yet another piece of middle of the road legislation which has become the trademark of all Liberal governments.
Unfortunately the vast majority of Canadians want decisive action on this issue, not this watered down liberalism. On behalf of Mr. Castet and his late son André, I urge the government to hop off the fence and make the necessary changes to this important legislation.
If I have two minutes left I am going to once again return to my pitch and plead with the public as well as the members of the House to consider running boot camps or military style detention camps. For a minimum period of incarceration these camps will have a disciplinary effect for life on the people subject to that sort of punishment. It does not inflict physical harm. It simply says: "You obey the rules of this establishment. You do not have rules of your own". In so doing, it brings them around to saying: "Yes. Maybe I had better pay attention and listen to what society is telling me".