Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this bill is to amend the Prisons and Reformatories Act.
First of all, you may recall that this bill evolved in connection with a task force formed in 1993. The bill is the result of recommendations made by a federal-provincial, and of course also territorial, task force appointed by Correctional Services to recommend amendments to the legislation regulating temporary absences for offenders in provincial or territorial custody.
Amendments were made by the ministers of Justice last May in 1996. These amendments were proposed in response to requests from the provinces and territories. Their purpose is to remedy deficiencies in the legislation and to give the provinces and territories increased flexibility in administering their temporary absence programs.
Provincial and territorial authorities had for some time expressed the need for updating the Prisons and Reformatories Act.
This bill was read the first time on June 18, 1996. Since then, the Bloc Quebecois has thoroughly examined all the ramifications of this bill. The Bloc will now propose improvements in committee, since we assume the bill will pass second reading as is more or less customary, because on the whole, the bill seems quite acceptable. However, the Bloc would have-in any case I will make that suggestion to the Bloc and of course we have talked about it a little-three points which I think should be given closer consider-
ation and perhaps amended if possible, but in any case considered more closely. There are some important elements that in my opinion were more or less overlooked.
The principle of protecting society, which predominates in the Federal Parole Act, is absent from the general principles of this bill. It is included as one element among many others in section 7.1 of the bill.
In my opinion, it is ethically incorrect to claim all of a sudden that protecting society has now become of secondary importance in the formal legislative process. I think we should ask ourselves what should come first, if not protecting society, in this kind of legislation.
Everything that we do here, all the legislation that we vote on, has as its purpose to improve the lot of society or to better protect it, which in the end comes down to improving the lot of society. When, as here, the term "protection of society" is relegated to a subclause in the bill, I think this is a bit dangerous.
As you know, all good pieces of writing are the product of thought, but when there is an error in thought, we must question the material it gives rise to. It therefore seems important at this time to be sure, when using the term "protection of society", to include it in the basic general principles of Bill C-53. This is something that, in my opinion, the proposers should not have much trouble approving.
I will now move on to a second aspect, which I will call Liberal subtlety. I would propose changing "lieutenant governor" to "lieutenant governor in council", and therefore more specifically the provincial cabinet. This choice of term represents the reality and leaves provincial governments with complete discretion in this area. The present wording of the bill is confusing.
Using the term lieutenant governor means that one person appointed by the Prime Minister of Canada, if memory serves, will be making the decision about, or at least will have a large say in, what happens to paroled inmates. At a time when there is talk of decentralization, when the Liberals are talking about decentralization, mark my words, the Bloc Quebecois will give the Liberals a golden opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and give the cabinet of each province, rather than the lieutenant governor as provided in the bill, the right to determine certain questions.
This is, therefore, an excellent opportunity to stop merely talking about delegation and redistribution to the provinces, and to actually do it, by just adding the words "in council" after "lieutenant governor". It ought not to be difficult, either. We in the Bloc Quebecois do not consider it a difficult thing to delegate to the provinces, naturally, but we shall see. Let us just let things take their course.
The third element is a little more complicated and takes a bit more explaining. In clause 7.4(1), the duration of a temporary absence is lengthened from 15 to 60 days. I must admit that I have a little trouble living with that, and the Bloc will have to work on this in order to propose proper modifications for, as it stands, with my own personal experience in this area, and judging from what my contacts have had to say, I can see that this does nothing to improve the quality-we are back to where we were just a while ago-of protection for society.
The principle is that an individual is given parole, and has to report every two weeks so things may be assured of working out properly and developments monitored. The individual must change, must learn to live in society as well.
So, a follow-up is done every two weeks; that is the case now. The new act calls for this to be done every 60 days, a period four times longer, when already the individual can get round things now. I will provide you with some interesting statistics. I have figures for a number of years, but I will limit myself to those for April 1, 1995 to March 31, 1996, because of the time.
It will be seen that 73 per cent of paroles are successful. In other words, 73 of every 100 people released are successful. That is all very nice, but what about the other 27 percent?
However, we must not forget that the remaining 27 per cent must be divided in two. There are people who breach parole for technical reasons. For instance, someone who was prohibited from being in a bar, in a drinking establishment, is seen there and returned to custody because he breached his parole. He did not commit a crime, let us be clear on that. It is not a crime to be in a drinking establishment although it may be prohibited as one of the terms of parole. It is merely a breach of parole, so it is a technical misdemeanour. There is no danger to society.
Seventeen per cent of offenders fail in this respect. We have the remaining 10 per cent whose parole was withdrawn because they had committed a crime. Imagine. This is where I make the connection between 15 and 60 days. These people were seen every 15 days, and the authorities were unable to find out when they were about to commit a crime. Ten per cent, and we are talking about 2,500 people, that is a lot.
So I do not think the results will be better if we take this fifteen-day period and multiply it by four. I find it very hard to believe that society will be better off, that the individual himself will be better off and that consequently, citizens will be better protected.
Unless we find a miracle solution, and a number of solutions have been tried within prison walls, I can guarantee you that, the problem will not be solved by leaving people who need supervision to their own devices. Of course they should not be oversupervised, since they need some time for themselves in order to become part
of society again, to become part of the normal processes in a society. But they must be supervised just the same.
At the present time, it is estimated that every two weeks requires a certain amount of staff, but there are results. Multiplying this period by four will only save on the number of people working for the solicitor general. There will be fewer parole officers to follow up each case. I feel the loser in this case is society. And also the individual who needs a leg up to get back into society and needs some supervision in the process. He is not being helped either. He is not being helped at all, but is being left even more to his own devices, and society as a whole is paying the price.
One favourable improvement is noted, however, a rather obvious one. I am referring to clause 7.6, which I will take the time to read, as it is very short:
7.6 (1) A designated authority who suspends, cancels or revokes a prisoner's temporary absence, or a person designated by that authority, may have a warrant or notice of suspension, cancellation or revocation issued for his or her apprehension and recommittal.
In order to review briefly what used to happen, let us take the case of an individual, one of whose conditions of parole was not to enter a drinking establishment but who was seen in such an establishment. When the individual reported to his officer, every 15 days, if he was assessed by the officer, he would have had to go before the parole board to determine whether or not he had breached the conditions of his parole; the group in question decided that there had, in fact, been a breach. At that time, if the individual was not present, for example, he was deemed to have been in breach, but all that came out of it was a document, a report from the board. This report stated that the individual in question was in breach, and was no longer eligible to be on parole, but he was no longer there.
They tried to give this to the police, who told them that it was just a report from the board and not a warrant, and that they could not execute it. It is worthless to law enforcement officers, it is of no use to them.
With this new change, the document from the board in question has the force of a warrant, the force of law. It can be given to a police authority and the officers will be able to move quickly to arrest the individual who has breached his conditions of parole.
Briefly, in my opinion and in the opinion of some members of the Bloc, this is the essential point. We have looked into this, and will have to do so again, in order to put the final touches on a presentation to the committee that will be looking at Bill C-53 in second reading. The Bloc will, as a minimum, be looking at the three elements I have just spoken to you about, in order to verify whether it would be possible to improve the bill a bit.
As you will have concluded, the Bloc Quebecois gives its support, in principle, to Bill C-53, but this does not mean we are dropping the three elements I have referred to, particularly the last, which strikes me as the place where it will get hung up, if anywhere. This is where the two parties may not see eye to eye, because the jump from 15 to 65 days is a bit too much.
As for the first element, all that is required is to insert the term "protection of society" in the general principles of the bill, instead of later on, where it gets lost in the shuffle. I imagine it ought to be rather easy for the proposers to support such a proposal. The other change is to add "in council" after "lieutenant governor", which would enable the provinces to decide fully, rather than the lieutenant governor.
These are the key points the Bloc considers to be real improvements to Bill C-53. If we are passing it, let us take advantage of the opportunity. The books are already open, so let us take advantage of the opportunity to add the right words in the right places. The Bloc supports Bill C-53 in second reading, and gives its agreement in principle.