I hope that the members from Quebec who are here are listening and will ask me questions. I will be pleased to answer them.
The Minister of Justice, and even Reformers, rely on statistics that do not demonstrate any need to make amendments to the Young Offenders Act.
I will quote the figures mentioned by the minister herself when she introduced her amendments. They are from Statistics Canada, which means they should be precise numbers. The crime rate among young people has dropped 23%, even for violent crimes. That is those crimes targeted by the minister's proposed amendment, those that prompted her act and propose changes. There has even been a 3.2% drop since 1995.
Contrary to what a Liberal member said, juvenile crimes do not account for 10% of all crimes, but for less than that. One should look at the actual figures before saying things that make no sense.
That is why, given the statistics quoted by the minister, we must arrive at the conclusion that she is blindly amending an act that is good.
I attended the meetings of the Standing Committee on Justice, which examined this issue. I heard all the stakeholders, including some from western Canada, British Columbia and Ontario, and they said the problem was not really the act itself but the related funding.
In Quebec, people said “It is not the act that presents a problem, but the financing. Please do not change the Young Offenders Act. Maintain the status quo”.
Some 25 or 30 years ago, we in Quebec decided to invest in rehabilitation and social reintegration instead of in bricks and mortar for jails in which to keep young people locked up, so that they come out at age 25 or 30 with a fine education in how to commit crime, and an inability to do anything else. What we do instead is to invest in the individual, to focus on the heart of the problem. We have excellent success rates for rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
Of course it does not make the front page headlines when a young person who committed a murder at age 15 and was placed in rehabilitation now, 10 or 12 years later, having been rehabilitated, becomes an anonymous member of society, marries and starts a family, has a job, and is not dependent on society. This does not make the front page, of course, but it is a situation we see daily as a result of the way we apply the Young Offenders Act.
Members will understand, therefore, that it is impossible for me not to react when I hear inaccurate statistics and information given in this House. I will speak out as strongly as possible against any such attempt by either the Reform Party or the Liberal Party, who seem to get along very well when a detour to the right is necessary. I will be quick to stand up and defend my point of view, which is a point of view shared by all Quebeckers, and we know what we are talking about.