Mr. Speaker, Quebec City, which I have the honour of representing in this House, is known throughout the world as the centre of French culture in North America. It is also famous for its magnificent location, its
old city, its cultural life, its tourist attractions and its warm hospitality. In other words, a quiet capital.
As for Montreal, it is one of North America's major centres. Unfortunately, a certain level of crime prevails in these large cities. A person living outside Montreal is aware of this fact and knows that it is somewhat unavoidable.
Now, the so-called quiet city of Quebec is starting to experience some of the problems of a large urban centre. The most striking one is certainly that of organized crime, which still manifests itself sporadically, but in an obvious way. Once we recover from the shock, we start to get a better understanding of the problems experienced by our fellow citizens from Montreal.
The motorcycle gang war has started up again and is even worse than before in the Quebec City region, particularly last week in the neighbourhood Saint-Roch. People are scared. They wonder how bad the confrontation will be. This is why I find it important today to take part in the debate on the bill tabled by the hon. member for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve on criminal organizations.
I must admit that reading the related file turned out to be very instructive. I learned that Quebec had the dubious honour of being the centre of organized crime in Canada. This is particularly true in the case of drug trafficking. Indeed, almost all the cocaine and haschisch seized in Canada is confiscated in Quebec. This is not to say that Montrealers consume all of these drugs. It simply means that Montreal is the port of entry, the hub of drug trafficking. This indicates criminal networks are established there and very well organized.
I learned also that some conditions are needed for such criminal networks to operate. To become prosperous, they need a rich environment allowing criminals to rake in profits. Also needed is an open environment, linked to other regions, countries and continents. As we know, Montreal is linked to other regions through a well developed road, rail, air and marine transport system. Moreover, because of our vast territory, authorities have a hard time maintaining strict control. Also needed is a free environment, devoid of oppression or dictatorship, which is of course the case in our society, in Quebec.
Finally, according to experts in the field, in order to develop, organized crime needs a bureaucratized environment where justice and security services are governed by strict and complex rules. We only have to think of all the constitutional protection enjoyed by defendants in our criminal justice system to see that this condition is easily satisfied in Quebec.
Therefore, all the conditions are met for Quebec, through its metropolis, Montreal, to hold the dubious title of headquarters for organized crime. What can we do about this? Year after year, police authorities sadly acknowledge that organized crime is on the increase and doing fine thank you, and steadily expanding. Faced with this situation, police authorities, with their meagre resources already stretched very thin, have been calling out for help for a long time now.
This bill my colleague for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve has introduced is an attempt at solving this problem. It would make it possible for the courts to condemn any person living on proceeds of organized crime. What is the rationale behind this bill? Why is it needed, when there are already so many sections and offenses in the Criminal Code?
The answer is quite simple. It is because, sadly, it is always those at the lowest level of organized crime who get caught, and not the bosses, who are protected by an aura of respectability and legality because they are never caught in the act.
With the new provisions in my colleague's bill, the police could have the crime bosses condemned by demonstrating that they are living on the proceeds of organized crime.
The proof would me made in two stages. First of all, if a person lives with or is habitually in the company of a member of a criminal organization or regularly frequents a habitual meeting place of a criminal organization or if the value of all the property possessed by that person has increased in a way that cannot be justified, that person would be deemed to be a member of the criminal organization.
Once that presumption has been established, that person could be accused of living on the proceeds of organized crime. Conviction would carry a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, and the property acquired with the proceeds of organized crime would be forfeited to Her Majesty. Thus, law enforcement authorities would have the means to fight criminal organizations and to deal with the real cause of the problem.
I think all of us should try to get better acquainted with the sad reality of the proliferation of criminal organizations. Nobody is protected against that problem, whether we live in Montreal or Quebec City.
Our vulnerability lies in the very nature of organized crime. Experts agree that it should be defined as a constant conspiracy to make profits and get more power through the use of fear and corruption.
That is why everyone is vulnerable. When an organization uses fear and corruption, it can get almost unlimited in scope. Each and everyone of us is afraid at the mere thought of being pressured or threatened by criminals.
Right now, the Montreal area is prey to these types of criminals. Everything seems to indicate though that other regions, like mine, could very soon be controlled by criminals, if it is not already the case. Therefore, we have to give our police and legal authorities the power they need to fight this social evil, while, of course, upholding the basic human rights of all individuals. This is exactly what
the bill introduced by my colleague is trying to do and I urge all members of this House to support this initiative.