Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to address this motion.
The hon. member's bill as drafted would do two things. First, it would amend the Criminal Code to make a breach of a condition of parole, statutory release or temporary absence a criminal offence. As a consequence police would have the authority to arrest without warrant an offender who on reasonable grounds is believed to have breached or is about to breach a condition of parole, statutory release or unescorted temporary absence.
This authority already exists in the Criminal Code for breach of probation, as the parliamentary secretary did indicate earlier.
Second, the bill would amend the Criminal Code to authorize a parole board, following an offender's arrest, to either release the offender or apply to a justice to detain the offender in custody until the board could issue a warrant.
Public protection from conditionally released offenders is a matter of serious concern to this government and an area where we have made several legislative and practical improvements.
I would like to clarify some inaccuracies and misconceptions on which the hon. member's bill is founded.
With respect to violations and preventions of breaches of parole, statutory release and unescorted temporary absence conditions, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act already provides ample authority for an offender's conditional release to be suspended by correctional officials. This enables police to arrest the offender and bring him or her into custody.
With regard to an offender on an unescorted temporary absence, a suspension warrant can be issued where the grounds for granting the absence have changed or no longer exist or when new information becomes available that would have altered the original decision.
With respect to an offender on parole or statutory release, a suspension warrant can be issued at any time by the correctional service of Canada and the National Parole Board when it is believed to be necessary and reasonable in order to protect society. Execution of this warrant provides sufficient authority to return the offender to custody until the case can be reviewed by the National Parole Board.
Some may reasonably question why police do not have the same direct authority to arrest conditionally released federal offenders as they do for probationers. I would like to briefly address this question by explaining the key differences between provincial probation and federal conditional release, be it parole, statutory release or an unescorted temporary absence.
Probation is a court disposition which is not granted by a parole board. A breach of probation is a criminal offence because it constitutes a violation of a court order, as was pointed out earlier.
When a breach of probation occurs police have the same authority to arrest a person without a warrant as they would any other person who has committed a criminal offence.
Parole, statutory release and temporary absences, on the other hand, are not court orders, as was pointed out earlier. They are forms of conditional release granted either by the National Parole Board or the correctional service of Canada. All three types of releases are designed to facilitate the reintegration of offenders into the community as law-abiding citizens. We know very well the position of the Reform Party on that.
Conditions of parole, statutory release and temporary absence constitute restrictions placed on the offender that assist the parole supervisor in managing the offender's risk while on conditional release. Because breaches—