Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. It is an important question.
Before I became a member of this place I spent a lot of time in the schools over the past five years talking to young people about violence, trying to work with them and trying to make them understand the ramifications. It certainly has been my experience over those years from the number of young people I have talked to in the schools that there is fear among our youth. They are the majority of victims of youth crime.
I dare say that when a class full of high school students is asked what it would do with the Young Offenders Act I find that most students would be far more harsh than anything members have ever heard from the Reform Party.
That explains the kind of fear students experience in their schools. It is not only something I have seen in my riding or the hon. members has seen in his. I have seen this throughout B.C. at every school and youth group that I have had the pleasure of addressing on these issues.