Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to support Bill C-72. I commend the Minister of Justice for responding quickly to the Supreme Court of Canada decision on this matter.
This is a matter of concern to all Canadians. It is clearly a problem that has been identified in the criminal justice system. It is appropriate the minister respond, as he has indicated, and preclude a person from being able to rely on self-induced intoxication as a defence.
It is also proper that the minister is considering the most appropriate way the proposal can be introduced into our criminal system. It would be irresponsible not to consider the constitutional ramifications of the proposal.
As we all know, Canadians are becoming increasingly concerned about their safety, the safety of their families and the safety of their communities. Their confidence in the criminal justice system and its effectiveness in reducing crime rates have given rise to concern over the last few years. There is increasing
demand that the government take action to deal with this situation.
I believe firmly and my party believes firmly that society should take stern, tough measures against violent crimes and those that commit them. I also believe just as strongly that we must balance the approach by putting in place programs to effectively prevent crime. We must be both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.
It is true that Canadians need to believe that those who commit violent crimes for whatever reason will be properly dealt with in the courts. This bill will address one concern: that someone can use the defence of intoxication to get away with a crime of violence. It is appropriate that the punishment fit the crime.
Unfortunately it is a knee-jerk reaction that is not good enough. From experience we know that simply expanding the incarceration system, the prison system, spending more money on courts and prisons, making more and more laws to punish more and more people has little positive effect on the overall sense of security and overall levels of criminal activity.
The Minister of Justice recently pointed to this problem. He said that building more jails, filling them with criminals and throwing away the key will not solve Canada's crime problems. In a speech to the Empire Club of Toronto he stated: "I believe we have to go beyond the slogans to the substance of the issue to prefer logic to rhetoric".
He continued: "If crime prevention is to be successful, it has to be a co-operative effort by law enforcement agencies, social agencies, the education system, community workers and health professionals. The goal is preventing crime. Making the streets safer has as much to do with literacy as it does with laws, human rights and living standards".
"Crime prevention means recognizing the connection between the crime rate and the unemployment rate, between unsupervised access by young people to movies saturated with violence and the way they behave toward one another and how a kid behaves in a school and whether he has a hot meal".
The Minister of Justice is entirely right in linking the causes of crime to the level of criminal activity which has caused so many people concern.
Before I go on to comment more about that let me talk about this defence. We know that the conduct of Henri Daviault, who consumed 40 ounces of brandy and seven or eight beer before raping a 64-year-old, partially paralysed woman is something that is reprehensible, something that every decent member of society finds absolutely disgusting.
Carl Blair, drank 40 ounces of rye, 40 ounces of vodka and a large quantity of beer and then brutally beat his wife. This kind of activity cannot be tolerated. We have to do everything within our means to address this effectively.
One of the things we can do, one of the things that we have the power to do, is ensure that drunkenness cannot be used as an excuse for violent behaviour, that it cannot be used to avoid a criminal sanction for such reprehensible acts.
Where did this activity come from, where did this seeming disregard for the rights of women come from, why do people turn to these actions? We know from reports by the standing committee on justice and the solicitor general on crime prevention that those represented on the committee maintain that the identification and punishment of criminals are, on their own, ineffective means of reducing future risks of victimization and promoting community safety.
Over the past decade we have seen the United States and some states in that country spending unprecedented sums of money on more judges and more prisons. In some states the building of prisons is the largest industry. Yet there, as here, citizens continue to report an increasing fear of crime in their communities. Pouring more money into punishment and incarceration cannot be seen as the complete answer to the concerns Canadians have about their justice system and safety in their communities. It cannot be seen as the complete answer to the problem of criminal activity that we experience. While the punishment must fit the crime, we must also act to eradicate the conditions that lead to individuals violating those laws. We must find new, effective and cost efficient ways of addressing the causes of crime.
There is a growing recognition in Canada and in our communities that any effort to reduce crime must include programs targeted at its root causes, as the Minister of Justice indicated in his recent speech to the Empire Club. Evidence points to a strong connection between social and economic conditions and crime. The minister admitted as much. Extensive hearings by committees of the House have identified, among other things, unemployment, poverty, physical and sexual abuse, illiteracy, inadequate housing, social and economic inequality as major contributors to crime.
The social and economic conditions that lie at the root of criminal behaviour are of course complex. A safer community strategy must look well beyond the criminal justice system to incorporate all levels of all governments and a variety of community groups to seek real answers to these real problems.
A successful response will recognize that employment policy, educational policy, family policy, youth policy, health policy must be understood in the context of their impact on crime. We know there is a strong connection between poor economic conditions, unemployment and crime. Study after study point to these contributing factors and point the direction we must
pursue if we are going to effectively deal with criminal activity in our country.
In closing, simply reacting to crime is not the answer. Apprehending, prosecuting, sentencing, incarcerating and treating offenders cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars annually. While these measures are important, while we must be tough on crime and criminals, they will continue to be ineffective until they are coupled with long term solutions for prevention, until they are coupled with long term solutions to be tough on the causes of crime also.
Crime prevention through social development involves positive interventions in the lives of the disadvantaged and neglected in order to bring about a reduction in deviant tendencies. This approach aims to reduce crime and create safe communities by tackling the social and economic conditions that breed crime.
To approach the issue of criminal concerns in our country, the difficulties with our criminal justice system in the piecemeal way with which the government is proceeding, is simply not the answer. The government deals with the specific issue of the intoxication defence. It is only reacting because of public pressure which arose as a result of the Supreme Court of Canada decision.
This is not a planned approach to effectively dealing with crime in our communities. There may be differences of opinion in how we address this problem, but what the government needs is a holistic, wide ranging, complete approach to the issue of criminal justice. As with all things we must focus on prevention rather than just picking up the pieces afterward. If ever we want to see a contrast we only have to look south of the border to see what is happening in the United States. If we do not deal with the causes of crime we will continue to reflect more similarly the tragic social, economic and criminal situations which exist there.
While the Minister of Justice is proposing a few useful, though piecemeal, measures such as this one to deal with concerns with the Canadian criminal justice system, the government is attacking the very programs which would assist in getting tough on the causes of crime. The Liberal government's attack on social programs can only be seen to serve to increase the sense of insecurity in our communities and to increase the causes of crime.
We have seen this over the years with the last government. This government is pursuing the same, even more aggressive attack on social programs and we will see it increasing the tensions in our communities and giving rise to greater stress which will give rise to greater criminal activity.
What the government needs is two things. It needs a comprehensive criminal justice approach, not a piecemeal approach. Canadians deserve to see a plan, some vision, some effort over the long term to see where the justice system should go. It needs to be based on informed opinion, not on the reactions of the public to individual concerns. Only responding to public pressure on individual issues is not good enough. The government needs to get tough on the causes of crime as well as on crime.
Second, it needs to stop eroding the very programs which serve to prevent crime. Its neo-conservative attack on social programs means Canada is bound to lose the war on crime. Canada and Canadians deserve better.