Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today and speak to Bill C-3, an act to amend the old Young Offenders Act.
I want to begin by asking members to consider the concept of justice. When we talk about the youth criminal justice act, which is essentially the Young Offenders Act, it is really important that we take the time to examine some of the terms that we throw around fairly loosely and really see what is inside them.
The first term I want to start with is the whole idea of justice. What does justice mean? Everything I have ever read and my common sense tells me that there are a couple of things inherent in the idea of justice. The first one is that there should be punishment. The second one is that it should be proportional to the crime that was committed.
Both in this legislation and in the old Young Offenders Act, I find that these two components of the concept of justice are sometimes missing. We do not see punishment sometimes, certainly not proportional, to the crime that has been committed. Let me explain what I mean by that.
Under the Young Offenders Act and under Bill C-3, the new youth justice act, we see maximum sentences for crimes that in some cases may seem okay, such as 10 years for murder, but very often we do not see sentences that are meted out that really do fit the crime. When a young person takes another person's life, steals the rest of that person's life, the 50 or 75 years ahead, it seems inappropriate to me that sometimes we hand out sentences of three years or five years, but so often that is the case.
It is no wonder the justice minister is saying that the Young Offenders Act is easily the most offensive piece of legislation in the eyes of the public today. It was the justice minister who said that. I am not saying something that is simply my opinion or the opinion of members of my party. We have heard it from the lips of the Minister of Justice. It really is reflected in the public today, the idea that too often we see sentences handed down that really are not justice in the minds of the public because they do not punish people for crimes they have committed and there is no proportionality.
There is no recompense in the form of some kind of appropriate punishment for the years that are stolen from people in the event of a murder. Sadly, that leaves the families left behind bitter. They feel victimized again when these sentences are handed down. That would be the first criticism I have of this legislation. It does not deal with that old concept of justice.
I do not think anybody believes we should be overly harsh. I do not think anybody believes that we should throw the book at a 13 year old because he was shoplifting. That is ridiculous. We do not want to do that. We think that the idea of alternative measures is good. In fact, it is one that we proposed a number of years ago. The government is desperately trying to take some credit for it, but it was a Reform Party initiative.
We believe that everybody should have a second chance providing the crime is not too serious. They should have the chance to admit responsibility for something they have done and ultimately try to make up for it. In doing all of that perhaps they may learn a lesson that what they have done has hurt the victims of their crimes. It is very important that we continue to embrace that concept.
I talked recently in my community with victims of crime who have gone or who are about to go through this process. They could see the merit in it. I am proud that members of my caucus have proposed this, as the member for Crowfoot has done.
There are other issues I want to touch on. In Bill C-3 there is a lot of rhetoric but there is very little in terms of new aspects that would give comfort to the public. One of the biggest criticisms the public raises whenever we have new criminal justice legislation with respect to young people—and it seems like we have had a lot but they never seem to get it right—is the fact that we are not supposed to talk about who has committed these crimes. In some cases they are violent crimes. Many people argue that the public does have a right to know who these people are when these crimes are committed and they are convicted of them. There is some common sense and merit in that. There are a couple of reasons.
One reason is very straightforward. If somebody has committed a serious crime, armed robbery or even murder, and is sentenced, gets out of jail and we never do learn the name, in some ways that may put the public at risk. People should have the right to know that their neighbour has committed a very serious crime. Then they can take some steps to protect themselves. Sadly, the history in Canada is that there are certain instances where people have been convicted of extraordinarily serious crimes, have preserved their anonymity because of this law and have gone on to commit heinous acts.
I could tell a story that would probably break everyone's heart about that happening in British Columbia in the past but I do not have the time. It is extraordinarily important that we restore the idea that people who have committed a crime and have been convicted of it be held accountable as well by having their name published, known to the public. That is an important aspect of justice. Sadly we do not see it addressed here.
I also want to talk about the issue of 10 and 11 year old children who all too often end up committing what would be crimes if they were old enough to be convicted of them. Again the youth justice bill does not address that issue. It does not deal with it. We know from reading the newspapers that there are many instances of young children who commit crimes. They are caught burning buildings down for example. In some cases they are even being recruited by older young offenders to help them commit crimes.
It would be a good idea to give the authorities the authority to deal with 10 and 11 year olds in the law. It does not mean putting them in jail. It would be a good idea to allow the authorities to use alternative measures to deal with these 10 and 11 year olds so that they could go to them if they have done something. If they admit their responsibility, they could face their victim. The victim could explain to them just what kind of harm these young people had done to their lives. Hopefully if they have a conscience, they will feel some guilt and some sense of shame. It will help them to avoid a life of crime and a lot of heartache down the road.
The government for reasons that are not clear to me has not addressed that. I do not understand it. We know that the public is anxious to give the authorities some way of dealing with these young people who are doing those sorts of things. It is very disappointing to me and my colleagues that we are not doing this. I would argue that we are really doing a disservice to young people when we allow this to go on without any kind of recourse in the form of giving authority to police to deal with this. Ultimately we condemn them to repeat their mistakes over and over again. Not only does that hurt the victims; obviously it does, but it hurts those young people too.
If we could deal with them when they are 10 and 11 we would have a better of chance of turning them around than when they are 15, 16 or 17 years old. I would argue that the government has failed when it comes to recognizing that important flaw.
Finally I want to say again that the government too often argues that violent crime is a thing of the past in Canada or at least that it is on its way down and it is not a big issue any more. In my riding this year, we had the horrible murder of Jason Lang allegedly at the hands of a 14 year old boy. It behoves all of us to take the issue of violent youth crime seriously. We cannot pretend that this is no longer a problem. It is a problem. It is happening too often. We have seen other examples, recently in Toronto for instance.
Let us not pretend that this is not happening any more. Let us take these issues seriously. It is our job as legislators to do that. Unfortunately this legislation simply does not do it.