Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak to Bill C-251, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
I admire the hon. member for Mississauga East for her tenacity toward this legislation. This is the third time she has attempted to bring this legislation to fruition. She has indicated that she has the support of 166 members of the House, including support from all parties. That would appear to be sufficient to reach a majority, but I will not be holding my breath. We have seen how government members soon forsake conscience and common sense once they receive the marching orders from the front benches.
In 1993 the Liberals campaigned on a promise to give backbenchers more weight in the government by providing MPs with a greater role in drafting legislation. More free votes were to be allowed. Now, almost five years later, we still do not have successful private members' legislation in the area of criminal justice. The House can appreciate my scepticism.
The House may also appreciate my concern over the inconsistencies of the hon. member for Mississauga East and many of her colleagues on that side of the House. In Bill C-41 in 1995, when they voted in favour of conditional sentencing, one must assume they did what the former minister of justice instructed them to do.
Just last week I note another sexual offender received absolutely no jail time for sexual assault and forcible confinement. This example is but just one of the most recent. There have been many other cases where sexual offenders have received the benefit of the Liberal Bill C-41 get out of jail free legislation.
On the one hand the proposer of the bill before us seeks increased sentencing for sexual offenders, but on the other hand she appears to say that it is okay for sexual offenders to serve their time at home. No wonder Canadians have lost faith in their politicians.
When this legislation was last debated in this place the then parliamentary secretary to solicitor general clearly put the writing on the wall for government members. He stated:
I am concerned that Bill C-251, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, may take away flexibility and discretionary power from our courts and add to the already heavy burden of correctional bodies, when it comes to administering sentences.
He appears concerned about the administrative cost of keeping violent offenders in prison. We could only wish the Minister of Finance would express the same concern over the cost of administering the GST.
Later the then parliamentary secretary stated:
The proposed amendments, however, invoke punitive measures that far exceed the restrictions now set out in the Criminal Code and Corrections and Conditional Release Act as well as threaten freedoms defended by the Charter, as I mentioned.
I suggest the word freedoms has no place in any discussion of sanctions for criminal activity. Here again we have an example of the Liberals' paralyzing fear of the charter.
Later on in his speech he added:
—the proposals now before us do not at this time reflect the best interests of the Canadian public.
That was a typical Liberal response that government knows best and the Canadian public is too stupid to decide for itself.
The parliamentary secretary was speaking for the front bench of the government. In this place there is little in the way of free votes for the government side. There is little likelihood of a substantive role in drafting necessary legislation by any backbencher, even those on the government side.
The parliamentary secretary once again used the charter as a reason for failing to respect the desires and needs of Canadians. It was noteworthy that he failed to explain just how the charter protects our most heinous criminals from receiving consecutive sentences. It was also noteworthy when he stated that these proposals did not reflect the best interests of the Canadian public.
Bill C-251 proposes to ensure that those offenders who commit sexual assault and another offence receive consecutive sentences. It ensures that murderers are not eligible for parole until they have served the sentence for the murder plus a stated minimum for any other sentence imposed.
The parliamentary secretary talked about the best interests of Canadians. I think he may only be thinking of the best interests of our criminals. He is certainly not thinking about the victims of those crimes and he is not thinking about the safety of our communities.
Just this past week another university study into sexual violence severely criticized our criminal justice system for not seriously dealing with this issue. It is more concerned with the interests of criminals than it is with the needs of victims or public safety. The study found that only 13% of child molesters and 30% of sexual assaults of adults result in sentences of more than two years. This was compared to robbers who in 53% of cases receive more than two years. Children and women are most often the victims of sexual offences but the government is doing little to address this anomaly. Perhaps this private member's bill will help to correct that failure.
Consecutive sentencing would provide incentive for our justice system to pursue a complete record of our offenders. Too often crown prosecutors proceed only with one or two charges against the accused. There is usually only one cumulative sentence so there is nothing to be gained from proceeding with multiple offences, but this results in a major travesty and injustice at the time of parole.
Parole is based strictly on convictions. For example, Larry Takahashi was granted day passes even though he had admitted to sexually assaulting up to 30 women and police believed he was responsible for up to 100 sexual assaults. As far as the parole system was concerned he was responsible for 11 sexual assaults on seven women. When it came time to review his record for day parole purposes, only the convictions were considered.
Consecutive sentencing would bring about truth in sentencing. Multiple offenders would be distinguished from the one-time offender. There would be more honesty in sentencing. Presently our judges impose, for example, a one year sentence for a sexual assault. The victims and the public are deceived into believing the offender actually serves one year in custody, but as we all know parole takes place for every offence.
Offenders such as in this example often get out in a few days or a few months. The judges say they do their job by applying an appropriate sentence for the crime, but then the parole system gets involved and officials have the responsibility to get the prisoner out of incarceration at the earliest legislated opportunity.
The parole system states that they are just doing their job of following the rules toward release, but there is no truth in sentencing. Few if any actually serve the full court imposed sentence of incarceration. Even our most heinous murderers get reviews of their life sentences at 15 years pursuant to section 745. A notorious child killer whose name I will not say in this place murdered 11 children but was sentenced as though he had killed but one.
As we speak, a section 745 hearing is in progress in Vancouver for a man who killed three bar patrons and then drove to an RCMP detachment where he murdered the constable behind the counter. He too was sentenced as though he had taken but one life.
If I might add, in that case the killer allegedly shot another constable in the police detachment but was never prosecuted for that because there was no reason for it as there would be no difference in the sentence. The message to the criminal: kill as often as you wish, only the first one counts, the rest are freebies. The message to the victims: only the first life is important, the rest are inconsequential.
As to the specifics of Bill C-251, I wonder why the hon. member restricted her bill to section 271, the sexual assault offence. If her bill is successful I can only wonder how things will work when we have an offender who commits a sexual assault with a weapon pursuant to section 272 plus other offences. Will the crown proceed with the lesser offence of mere sexual assault with the hope that the sentence will be added to those for the other crimes or will the crown proceed with section 272 and hope that its sentence alone will meet society's objective? It appears as though our crowns may become professional gamblers in our courts.
I also wonder why the hon. member proposing this bill restricts it to sexual assault and murder. She does not include manslaughter, instances of use of a firearm in the commission of an offence and she does not include aggravated assault.
To sum up, I will support this member's initiative but I seriously question whether her own party members will have the fortitude to support their conscience rather than meekly following the orders from the front bench.
I support this bill as a start. It is certainly a long way from providing sufficient protection within our communities. It is a long way from being totally honest with our citizens. It is also a long way from attending to the interests of victims. However, I urge all members of the House to support this bill.