Mr. Speaker, I withdraw any unparliamentary remarks. I hope members across will try to engage in a more serious and substantive debate.
I recall, running in the last election in my constituency, that one of the most obvious concerns of my constituents, as I went door to door to thousands of homes in the southeast part of Calgary, was crime, particularly violent crime by young offenders. One issue raised with me frequently was the growing trend in home invasions. It is something I would like to address.
When I look at the overall statistics that Statistics Canada reported in 1995, 27% of urban residents of Canada had been victims of crime. About one quarter of Canadians were afraid to walk alone after hours in their neighbourhoods.
It is a shame that in what we often regard as such a peaceful country, so many of our fellow citizens should feel afraid to walk in their own neighbourhoods at night. We cannot rest as legislators as long as the kind of fear founded on crime disturbs the normal and peaceable lives of Canadian citizens.
I look at the situation in an otherwise stable and peaceful suburb of my constituency, the Sundance community. There was a gang fight in September 1997. A 17 year old whose name has been withheld by virtue of the Young Offenders Act stabbed and assaulted three 16 year olds. One of them had lost 10 litres of blood. He was stabbed in the heart, coronary artery and liver. An autopsy was scheduled for one of the three victims of the young offender's crime.
The 17 year old, who was nicknamed Baby Gangster, was sentenced to one year. His name was not released. The judge in that case said “he has a propensity for violence but it is more attitude than anger”. The judge cited a psychological report urging social and anger managing counselling. With all due respect, attitude was not the problem. The lack of social management counselling was not the problem. The problem was that there was a violent thug who nearly took a child's life.
We as legislators need to take more seriously the justice part of the justice system when it comes to imposing appropriate sanctions on individuals like this young so-called gangster.
I also raise the tragic case of young Clayton McGloan of the northeast part of Calgary. Later this month I will be hosting a town hall meeting with his parents. Clayton McGloan was a 17 year old who was viciously attacked by a gang of youths in the Coral Springs community of Calgary on October 31, 1998. He was hit over the head with a bottle, knocked unconscious and stabbed 12 times in the back. This was not an attitude problem on the part of the person who attacked him. It was a vicious murder, attempted and executed.
Clayton fought hard to stay alive. However life support was removed two days later after he was declared clinically brain dead. Close to 2,000 people attended his funeral.
Two juveniles, 15 and 17 years old, were charged but again they cannot be identified under the Young Offenders Act. They will not be identifiable under the bill recently introduced by the Minister of Justice. Both these juveniles stand a good chance of re-entering society in a couple of years.
This is the backdrop we see as members of parliament in representing our constituents. I find it unfortunate that after years and years of advocacy and hard work on the part of victims and their families to establish more meaningful sanctions for violent crime, particularly violent youth crime, that Bill C-68 placed before this House by the Minister of Justice does not come anywhere close to addressing the very real concerns of Canadians on this issue.
I now turn to a growing trend which really is very disturbing, the trend of home invasions. This is a situation where criminals invade a home as a random act if they know the occupants are there. This is not just a simple break and enter for the purpose of robbery. This is an aggravated form of assault on the property and home of residents.
In Kitchener—Waterloo a 71 year old woman was terrorized. Teenage thugs broke into her home, bound her, blindfolded her and threatened her with assault. I read of a case on Saltspring Island, British Columbia where residents were dismayed after their home had been invaded twice in five weeks by separate groups of young offenders.
In my own riding I recall going door to door in the election. I knocked on a door and an elderly lady came to the door after several minutes. She was petrified to open the door. She kept the chain on. She asked me what I wanted. I said I was running for parliament. She said she would not open the door because two young teenagers had tried to break down her door the previous week while she was there. She broke down in tears. She could not sleep at night. She was concerned that they were going to come back. The police were called but the boys ran off. The police said that even if they had been arrested they would be back out on the street in a day or so.
I have seen the very real faces of people concerned by this. It is not just the Reform Party who are concerned about this. I read the comments of the Attorney General of British Columbia from the New Democratic Party who says that home invasion is a serious problem across the country and the federal government needs to take some leadership on it. He proposes, as do we, that there be a minimum Criminal Code offence for home invasion above and beyond the offence for breaking and entering, and that this be considered an aggravating factor in sentencing. There would be a higher sentence if this kind of home invasion is a factor in a crime that is committed.
I call on the government to listen to Canadians who are suffering from the growing number of home invasions. I urge government members to listen to the official opposition, listen to the provincial attorneys general. Bring in the kind of sentencing guidelines which would more seriously punish those who violate the privacy of innocent law-abiding Canadian citizens in their homes.