moved that Bill C-219, an act to amend the Criminal Code (using or operating a stolen motor vehicle in the commission of an offence), be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Madam Speaker, the concept for Private Members' Bill C-219 originated in August 1996 at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. One of the resolutions receiving unanimous support was to add a minimum jail sentence when a stolen vehicle is used during the commission of a crime.
My private members' bill amends the Criminal Code so that a person is guilty of an indictable offence and must be sentenced to one year imprisonment if the person operates or uses a motor vehicle that the person has stolen or knows has been stolen while committing or attempting to commit an offence, or during flight after committing or attempting to commit an offence. The sentence for such an offence shall be served consecutively to any other punishment imposed on the person.
This bill puts the police chiefs' resolution into practice. It will clearly serve as a deterrent to those considering these types of criminal acts.
There are three primary motivations for auto theft: one, joyriding; two, transportation for criminal purposes such as breaking and entering, robbery, and drive-by shootings; and three, when a car is stripped for parts or exported to other provinces or countries for sale.
Statistics Canada has reported that motor vehicle theft is one of the few crimes in Canada that has been rising in recent years. Since 1988 auto thefts have grown by 80% with a 9% increase in 1996 alone. About one in one hundred vehicles were reported stolen in 1996, that being the eighth straight annual increase. In 1991 14% of stolen vehicles were used to commit other criminal offences to escape from authorities.
We can assume that the increase since 1991 in total vehicle thefts is directly proportionate to those used for committing a crime. Therefore the problem is obviously much larger today.
Car theft has become a costly nuisance throughout this country. Each year more than a billion dollars worth of vehicles are stolen and there is another quarter of a billion dollars in vandalism that has been done to cars that are recovered. Each province is suffering from this growing problem.
In Toronto alone in a 25-day period in January 1998, there were approximately 900 cars stolen while in 1997 there were 17,000 cars stolen. In Vancouver the records show that 25,077 vehicles were stolen in the city in 1996, an increase of 1,331 from the previous year. The greatest risk of theft was in Montreal where 31,211 vehicles were stolen last year.
Police have referred to the rate of theft in the greater Vancouver area as an epidemic. People are stealing cars almost at will to use for transportation and to commit other crimes. Vancouver authorities recognize that people living there are also increasingly at risk of being hit by a stolen car. Statistics Canada, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, the attorney general of B.C. and police officers have recently drawn attention to this threat.
In Vancouver, Brenda Hohn, a 30-year old mother of two, was killed when a stolen Dodge Shadow raced past a stop sign and broadsided her car. Vida Coronado, a 31-year old single woman, who had recently emigrated from the Philippines was killed. Her car was struck in an intersection by a stolen Pontiac Firebird that had run a red light.
ICBC, the province's public insurance agency, undertook a comprehensive study of 28,000 auto theft claims filed in 1995 and the first six months of 1996. It found that one in four Criminal Code offences reported to the police in British Columbia in 1995 involved either theft of cars, theft from cars, or vandalism to motor vehicles.
The increase in auto theft has meant a significant jump in costs for the insurance corporation. About $91.4 million was paid out in claims in 1996, up from $12.6 million in 1987. If the present trend continues, the insurance company estimated the province will pay more than $800 million by the end of the century from direct stolen vehicle losses. If police, court and jail costs are included, the cost of auto crimes will likely exceed $1.5 billion in this single province alone by the year 2000.
Statistics Canada reports that children aged 12 to 17 account for 56% of all stolen cars. Interviews with captured teenage car thieves have determined that those 14 years of age or under had stolen three cars per week in the 12 months before they were caught.
Almost 80% of the cars are stolen for joyriding. Most of the vehicles are dumped after a few hours and are recovered by police in two days. For example, with an estimated 26,194 cars stolen in B.C., the statistics indicate that every day there are about 40 cars being driven by joyriders under the age of 17. Sadly, joyriding often leads to tragedy. A typical headline in the newspaper reads as following. A 16 year old faces a charge of criminal negligence causing death and two charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm after the stolen vehicle crashed and killed one of his friends and maimed two others. Police say four youths were in the car when it crashed and rolled at least six times. One youth died at the scene. This headline has been seen in every town across Canada. With cases such as these there is usually no time served for the stolen car.
All in all, this problem affects every individual in Canada. Some may consider this petty theft but it is a major industry with no recourse for the owner of the vehicle. The insurance coverage for this type of theft costs Canadians almost $500 million annually. For each individual this crime imposes physical, emotional and financial burdens.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates that residential, commercial and automobile thefts currently cost insurance companies $2 billion a year in claims. In turn, the insurance industry recovers these costs from consumers of insurance through rate increases and of course higher deductibles.
For example, motor vehicle theft accounted for more than 49% of the amount paid by the auto insurers in comprehensive claims in 1993 on 1992 model cars. Therefore the cost to insurers for auto theft claims increased by 7% from 1992 to 1993.
My goal is not merely the reduction of auto thefts in Canada and saving the insurance companies money. One of the most successful approaches to reducing crime is what I think of as the broken window theory. In other words, if we take care of the little crimes the big ones seem to take care of themselves.
This private member's bill is a perfect example of this theory. If this bill serves as a deterrent, and I think it will, to those using motor vehicles to commit criminal acts, then there should be a direct reduction in the number of deaths, injuries to individuals and the cost for police forces, insurance companies and different levels of government.
As seen in the U.S. in one study, when auto thefts fell in 12 major cities there was no corresponding increase in other major crimes.
Toronto's chief of police has recently established a committee that is trying to obtain a 25% reduction in the number of car thefts. But he also acknowledged that they need assistance from all levels of government.
I feel this private member's bill, which has been made votable, is a good start in helping our police forces fight this epidemic by sending the message that if a person commits a crime using a stolen motor vehicle, that person will serve additional time.
I am particularly pleased that the chiefs of police support this bill and all the policemen I have talked with regarding this bill are quite supportive. I find that a number of people are quite supportive of the idea of consecutive sentencing.
I have tried on a number of occasions in the House to have people consider consecutive sentencing. When I was talking about consecutive sentencing, I was thinking of people like Clifford Olson who I believe should not serve one life sentence but should serve more than that, one for each victim he murdered, and the likes of Paul Bernardo, but nothing ever came of it. There was never any consecutive sentencing that took place.
But lo and behold, one day I went to a courthouse and there was actually some consecutive sentencing. That was the day that Bill Cairns, a grain farmer from Manitoba, was charged on two occasions for selling his own grain across the border. He served 30 days consecutive for each of these vicious crimes. That is how ridiculous it has become, consecutive sentencing for a person who was trying to illustrate the wrongness of a certain law through civil disobedience.
Now with this private member's bill we have the opportunity to send a message loud and clear. I am sure that the members on the government side would be supportive of it because one thing they have said throughout the years I have been here is that preventive measures need to be taken.
I believe a deterrent is one method of preventing crime. This would serve as a deterrent. This would give the opportunity to the justice minister to be very supportive in sending a message loud and clear to the young offenders that this will not be tolerated any longer. Remember that 50% of vehicles stolen are by people under age 18.
Each year too many lives are lost because of vehicles being stolen for joyriding by young offenders. We need to send the message that they will be severely punished for stealing vehicles. This must stop for the sake and safety of all other victims.
Here is an opportunity. We have been waiting for quite some time for changes to the YOA but they have not happened yet. We have heard a lot of good rhetoric and a lot of talk that this possibly could happen.
Supporting this bill would be an opportunity to send a message to young people across Canada that the one activity they have been heavily engaged in that will cease is the stealing of motor vehicles.
In 1992 when I was on the campaign trail I parked my car after an activity in my own garage one night in a small town of 1,800 people. I got up the next morning to go about my usual campaigning details. I threw open the garage door and walked in and for a moment I could not remember what I went in there for. I looked around and asked what did I come in here for. My car was gone. Where did I put that thing?
It is quite an experience. Six days later the car was recovered with 1,800 additional kilometres put on it. The inside had liquor spilled all over. All kinds of drug use went on in it. They really violated it. Even though it was not violent in terms of physical harm, it is quite a thing to happen to people who rely on a vehicle for their use.
It was not investigated at any length to determine who had stolen it. Unfortunately because of all the other problems the police are facing, auto theft is put lower on the scale in terms of spending some time investigating it. Consequently many are not solved.
I think we need to send a message loud and clear that we are going to impose consecutive sentencing on any members in society who choose to steal a vehicle in the commission of a crime. I hope the support of this bill will be as broad, far and wide in the House of Commons as it is in the public.
