Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity today to explain my position on this bill, and I have to say at the outset that I am opposed to the
bill and will vote against third reading, for reasons I intend to give in my speech.
In my opinion, the bill goes counter to the principles governing the treatment of offenders, and that is why I am against this bill.
At the report stage in my remarks I reviewed the principles of sentencing in relation to this bill and how this bill served those principles. I mentioned in the course of my remarks that the principal cause of my objection to this bill was the requirement for unanimity in the jury on the question of early release for an inmate. In my view, the other two aspects of the bill which I did not particularly like but was willing to go along with simply fell flat in the face of this requirement for unanimity in the place of the jury.
My very learned and capable colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, argued vehemently that the requirement of unanimity in a jury was something that was commonplace in our society and was part of the long tradition of the common law. I agree with him fully in that regard. However, what he neglected to mention and what I think is a fair comment on his defence is that juries have never been involved in sentencing. Sentencing has always been the purview of a judge. The jury is in a position to determine guilt or innocence but not to determine the sentence to be imposed on the offender.
Accordingly, while I could sympathize with the argument as far as it went, in my view it is wholly inappropriate for juries to be involved in the question of sentencing. That is a matter that falls, in my view, within the purview of a judge. It has done so for hundreds of years and ought to remain there.
I indicated also my displeasure at the entire process under section 745 which involved a jury in this whole matter since to me it smacked of being involved in sentencing. I did not get time to complete my remarks, so perhaps that was not clear from what I said.
I would like to go back to the four principles of sentencing that I talked about. I mentioned first, the protection of the public; second, the punishment of the offender; third, the rehabilitation of the offender; and fourth, the deterrence to others. I believe those are the four principles on which any sentencing bill ought to be judged.
Does the bill further the four principles? I would like to deal with each of the principles and indicate in my view how this bill fails to enhance any one of those principles to the benefit of the general public, except for possibly one, and in a way that I feel is inappropriate.
The effect of the bill will be to keep people in prison for longer. I think everyone in the House agrees. The Reform members in the House have been arguing strenuously that they get out too early and they will continue to get out too early under this bill. If implemented, in my view, very few will be able to apply successfully for early release under this bill. I suspect my colleagues opposite know it but for political reasons they wish to argue that the bill does not go far enough.
The bill does go far. I think it goes too far. The hon. member opposite knows perfectly well with a unanimous jury requirement chances of someone getting out are going to be down significantly from what they are today.
How does it enhance any one of these principles? Let me turn to the first one: protection of the public. Protection of the public is the paramount purpose of incarceration. I am firmly of the belief that if an offender is a danger to the public, that offender should be kept in prison to the full extent of the law, that is, to the full extent of the sentence that has been imposed on him or her. Under the current law, that is exactly the situation.
Hon. members complain that these people can apply for early release too soon. Application is one thing; granting is quite another. I invite members to look at the record, to examine it critically if they wish in respect of releases under this section of the Criminal Code. The protection of the public has been paramount in the minds of juries involved in this process and in the minds of the National Parole Board when an application gets to it following a successful jury application.
The record of the inmates who have been released on parole justifies confidence in the system that we have in that only two out of something like 50 have encountered difficulty with the law. Neither has committed a murder. One has gone missing and the other has been charged with some other offence and is back in prison I assume.
The track record of this section has been very good. That evidence, I submit, is being ignored in this debate. It should be enhanced. It should be drawn to the attention of the public who, once they have examined it, might have a different approach if there is any unanimity on the points in this bill.
Since most of the persons who are currently released under the existing system are not a danger to the public-and virtually every one of them has been established not to be a danger to the public-I suggest we have no basis for suggesting that the public protection is at risk. Therefore we do not need to stiffen the rules relating to early release on that ground.
Second, I will turn to rehabilitation of the offender. How is rehabilitation of the offender enhanced by keeping the inmate in prison for longer? I will talk about this in relation to punishment later, but most criminologists would agree that lengthy incarceration does not enhance rehabilitation of the offender. Rehabilitation can be accomplished in a relatively-