Mr. Speaker, Bill C-45 makes some significant changes to section 745 of the Criminal Code.
It addresses three major changes. First, a murderer serving time for murder must appear before a superior court judge and prove to the judge that he should be allowed this glimmer of hope and that he has a reasonable prospect of success before this proceeds. That is just fluff. That is part of a routine procedure that I am sure judges will allow to happen. How does the judge know? He will let the jury decide.
Second, this bill introduces different classes of murderers. A person who commits first degree premeditated murder for the first time, or just once, will be given this opportunity. However, if a person does it twice or more, they will no longer be given that opportunity. This change is not retroactive to serial murderers, to people who are already in jail for multiple murders. It is lacking
severely by not addressing the 58 multiple murderers who are in prisons now.
Those people will be allowed to come forward for a review. Those people will be considered for a review. Those people will bring agony to the lives of the families of the deceased and bring back the emotions of fear and hatred.
The Liberals are supposed to have such huge hearts and be so caring that they will spend billions of dollars just to save one life. Yet they do not seem to care or be aware of what they are potentially doing emotionally to the families of the victims of these 58 people. That is what is wrong with that section.
Third, the bill introduces a requirement that the parole board bring down a unanimous decision rather than just a two-thirds majority. I will return to that issue.
The justice minister is tinkering around the edges with this bill. He is trying to satisfy his legal buddies in the system that he is allowing them to continue with the high cost of defence and high cost of the defence justice system, yet also trying to satisfy the Canadian public that he is addressing a serious matter.
I believe it will be revealed, as I am trying to do, as a sham. He is trying to suck and blow at the same time and it does not work. He has created different classes of murder. Some are not as bad as others. He said that changes to section 745 are to enhance community safety. But how does it enhance community safety to allow murderers to walk our streets?
The minister also said that section 745 will be available to those who are deserving. Consider a person who commits a crime with intent to murder. He plans, knows what he wants to do and does it. Yet somehow he knows before he commits this murder that he will be deserving through a glimmer of hope clause, section 745. He is only allowed to do it once, though. He knows that he has a chance to get out. Deserving?
The Minister of Justice is using the word deserving and making it synonymous with premeditated, with murder and with criminal. That does not sound right to me and it is not what he should be doing when he is trying to address the deterrent and punishment for crime and focusing on the criminal. He says he is preserving this section for those who should have access to it in a way that makes sense.
Premeditated first degree murder does not make sense but it happens, and the punishment for that is life with parole after 25 years, which is the kind of truth in sentencing we need. A person must know, as my colleague from Edmonton Southwest said earlier today, that if the penalty is 25 years, they serve 25 years. If the penalty is life with no parole, it is life with no parole.
We should have the punishment meet the crime and truth in sentencing, but we do not have that now. We keep having these escape clauses. That is why our streets are not safe and why the perception is being created for Canadians that they have lots to fear from these criminals who are being coddled more than the victims and victims rights.
It does not make sense that when someone takes the life of another human being in a premeditated manner they are still given a carrot or, as the justice minister puts it, a glimmer of hope. When these people killed another person they took away their glimmer of hope. They ended all their dreams and all their plans. They took away any chance that these people had to contribute to society.
To worry about the rights and democratic freedoms of murderers I do not believe is as much of a high priority as the rights of the victims and of their families. The minister is not recognizing the emotional needs of the people who are left behind. Let us not forget that a victim's sentence is forever. It is life six feet under in a cemetery. Therefore life should mean life and a life should mean a life.
Under the charter of rights all people are supposed to be equally and are to be protected equally under the law. The justice minister has created different classes of Canadian citizens, telling people they may be valued more or less depending on how they die or how many people they die with. If one person is murdered, that murderer is deserving of a glimmer of hope. However, if two people are murdered at the same time by one person then that murderer does not deserve a glimmer of hope and is put away for the full sentence.
It gets more complicated. If two people kill two people are they deserving? In other words, one person's death is not proof enough. Is not one person's death in a premeditated, planned fashion proof enough of the criminal tendency of that individual? It takes two deaths for this government to act and then it will get tough.
Our first priority must be the law-abiding, taxpaying decent citizens. Government must respect that Canadians have the right to demand that their government give them safe streets and communities by cracking down on hard criminals, especially those who have been convicted of first degree premeditated murder, no matter how many people's lives they affect.
Parole boards are supposedly set in place for the purpose of rehabilitation after an individual is subject to parole and goes before this parole board. This is a quasi-judicial body. For many who serve on it the qualifications are vague. They are not really based on merit and no real knowledge is required to serve on this board.
This board is given the power, 15 years later or 18 years later, to overrule a judge's decision years after the fact. Years after the fact the circumstances are different and the evidence is somewhat forgotten. A prosecutor and a defence lawyer argue the case in a more detached and arm's length fashion. I know this to be true because I witnessed one this summer in Calgary.
I went to a section 745 hearing-I believe the man's name was Ramsey-and listened to Ramsey's defence lawyer trying to justify why this person deserved to have his sentenced reduced from 25 years. He had already served 16. He had been in there for 16 years but he was a model prisoner. He was rehabilitated and he had applied to get out early.
The prosecutor said: "No, this gentleman does not deserve to be let out. This gentleman is manipulating the system. He is playing games". There was a very descriptive and vivid explanation given of the crime. It was a drug related crime. He stood over his drug partner and shot him twice in the head. The jury listened to the description of the crime. I reacted to the evidence. I said to myself: "No, you stay in there and serve your 25 years".
That gentleman got 18 years because of the two-thirds rule. He got it reduced from 25 years to 18 years. By doing the right things in jail and by following the advice of his lawyer he was able to get his sentence reduced, despite the brutality of his crime.
This bill should be repealed, just like the prior bill that was introduced by the member for York South-Weston. We should get on with other legislation.