The people I am talking about are respectable. They do not like this bill. It is a bad bill and should be changed. Hopefully we will do that in committee.
“This new legislation is not only overdue, but also fails once again to protect society from dangerous and violent offenders”, said Garry Rosenfeldt, executive director of Victims of Violence.
“Criminal behaviour of 16 and 17 year old youth will still remain in youth court, irrespective of their crime. Thus one of the most profound and controversial loopholes within the justice system remains”.
“In the new bill, the definition of serious violent offence is so vague that it is also almost useless. Poll after poll has shown that 80% of Canadians have little or no confidence in the federal Young Offenders Act. The new youth criminal justice act will do nothing to improve that. It's a shame Ottawa refused to listen”.
This is the Ontario government. It sure loves this bill, the one this government is bragging about, when it has done very little to help Canadians.
There is another issue in our criminal justice system that raises Canadian cynicism to new levels, the use of conditional sentencing. I could go on for long. It seems I have been interrupted so many times I am not getting this whole exercise in. Conditional sentencing is a serious issue and needs to be addressed. One of my colleagues will talk in more detail about it.
The whole issue in the justice system today is that this government is not listening. It wants to blame the Reform Party, the NDP, the Bloc and the Conservatives for all the problems in the country.
The Liberals have had two elections since the Tories were defeated to straighten things out. They still have not done it. They still do not have health care where it should be. The justice system is nowhere near what it should be and this is the government that has done that. It has served its time.
What do those members do now? They get arrogant. If they present a bill, we are not good Canadians if we do not like it. If we hammer the justice bill, we are against all the good things that should happen in this country.
I have seven children and seven grandchildren. I know what is happening in this country as much as any Liberal on that side with young people. We need some changes in this law and we need them now.
I hope the government will listen when we get to committee, listen to what is happening in this debate today on the issues that are before us and make some serious changes in the areas of justice. We need them and we need them bad.