Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take part in the debate and to be supportive of Bill C-207 sponsored by the hon. member New Westminster—Coquitlam—Burnaby.
Bill C-207 is straightforward and what I would deem a common sense piece of legislation that would in essence crack down on those who repeatedly trespass on the private property or dwelling houses from which they have already been lawfully prohibited or removed.
As mentioned, the bill would amend section 41 of the Criminal Code to make it a summary conviction offence for a person who has been already lawfully removed or prevented from entering a dwelling house or real property within the previous 24 hours to trespass on that dwelling house or real property.
With such a provision in the Criminal Code, police and the courts would have an additional tool to protect individuals who can be terrorized. As a former crown attorney I challenge any member in this House to stand here tonight and say this would not have a positive effect on keeping criminals away from their victims. It would be an effective deterrent.
In particular, Bill C-207 would give our justice system one more tool to create the ability to combat the serious problem of criminal harassment commonly known as stalking. This is a crime whose victims, more often than not, are women. Criminal harassment has been around for a long time but it has only been codified in recent years.
While I support Bill C-207 I feel that there must be more done specifically to address this problem created by stalkers. As on most issues of concern, the Conservative government actively pursued measures to crack down on stalking.
In April 1993 the hon. Pierre Blais, justice minister of the day, introduced legislation that created for the first time in the history of Canada in legal statute the offence of criminal harassment. This bill quickly received passage in both the House of Commons and the Senate and received royal assent on August 1, 1993.
This was the first of an important series of steps in providing victims of this horrendous crime with recourse within our criminal justice system. Regrettably, the effectiveness of this legislation has since proven to be less than stellar.
In October 1996 the Department of Justice issued a report which evaluated the new law's effectiveness in prosecuting harassment behaviour in the protection of victims of crime.
This report concluded that the offence of criminal harassment was not treated seriously enough by judges and lawyers. Several indicators illustrate this point.
One is that the number of criminal harassment charges withdrawn or stayed by the crown as well as the number of charges withdrawn in exchange for peace bonds are extremely high when compared with charges related to other specific categories of crime. This is something that happens quite often in the context of plea bargains; that is that a criminal harassment charge may be laid in conjunction with another charge, for example assault, and the criminal harassment charge is essentially dealt away.
This illustrates the point that sadly this type of criminal offence has not been as effective as it was originally intended.
The justice department review reported that almost 60% of criminal harassment charges are withdrawn or stayed. It is also disheartening to hear from the justice department's information that 75% of those convicted of criminal harassment receive either probation or suspended sentences. The report concluded that the severity of the sentences imposed by the courts in cases of criminal harassment has not met the expectations in that legislation.
Some members may be asking why is this a problem. It is a problem because the previous criminal record, a record of violence against that same victim, or a record of breaching court orders, does not assure a stronger sanction from our criminal justice system, which is what this legislation in effect is intended to do. It gives crown prosecutors, police officers and ultimately judges greater ability to impose sanctions in response to criminal activity. Moreover, the great majority of accused criminals are released prior to their trial even though many of them had previous criminal records. Many of them had records of previous breaches of courts orders and many of them had been violent to their partners in the past.
The bottom line is that the justice department's report from 1996 seems to indicate that the strong anti-stalking legislation message has not been received by Criminal Code provisions and those who practice law in this country. It has not adequately been implemented.
We need more than a codified definition of criminal harassment. Although I support Bill C-207 and its simple positive intent, we need legislation that extends much further, legislation that would clearly and unequivocally state that Canadian society does not accept this type of crime in any way, shape or form.
I therefore use this opportunity to highlight a related piece of legislation, Bill S-17, an act to amend the Criminal Code respecting criminal harassment and other related matters. Fellow Nova Scotian and Progressive Conservative Senator Donald Oliver introduced Bill S-17 in May.
Many members of the House, particularly members of the Reform Party, have an unfortunate propensity for taking needless cheap shots at the upper house. While the Senate is an institution no doubt in need of change and in need of comprehensive change to reflect Canadians entering into the 21st century, the majority of senators as individuals are making positive contributions in federal legislation. We have witnessed such positive contributions, particularly laudable legislation such as Bill S-13 which was the subject of debate today.
We also have Bill S-11 regarding amendments to Canadian Human Rights Act from Senator Erminie Cohen, sponsored in this Chamber by my caucus colleague from Shefford. We also have another example in Senator Forrestall, another fellow Nova Scotian Conservative, who introduced several successful amendments to the Canada Marine Act this spring. Senator Forrestall's hard work even drew applause from the hon. member for Sackville—Eastern Shore, whose New Democratic Party favours outright abolition of the Senate.
Instead of using the Senate as a tired political prop, to which my colleague from Calgary West appears chronically addicted, let us work with senators to ensure that Canadians get the best legislation from this parliament.
In that vein I hope that Bill S-17 presently before the Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs will make it to the House. If it does I look forward to obtaining the support of all hon. members and even the sponsor of this bill. Regardless of political affiliation we should be worried about preserving the law in order to help pass good law into being.
Turning back to Bill C-207, on behalf of the Progressive Conservative Party we speak in favour of it. It is consistent with our party's overall tradition of keeping Canada's streets safe through effective legislation. I cannot say enough, however, that we need more co-operation on all sides of the House to ensure this type of effective legislation passes. Specifically, we need to do more to get tough on stalkers and protect innocent Canadians. This bill goes a long way to accomplish that end.
If we continue to work together and ensure that bills such as Bill C-207 and Bill S-17 are passed there will be no confusion among Canadians as to what the purpose of parliament is, that Canada has a zero tolerance policy with respect to criminal harassment. This is a laudable aim. I urge all hon. members to support this legislation. Again I commend the hon. member who moved this motion.