Madam Speaker, it is my privilege today to speak to Bill C-68.
Youth crime demands the attention of all levels of government and it demands the attention of parents and families. In Calgary I recently attended a town hall meeting for an organization called the Friends of Clayton McGloan. My colleague from Surrey North also attended another of the town hall meetings in Calgary. This organization was named for a young man whose life was tragically taken from him by two young offenders.
Clayton was stabbed numerous times and left for dead by two young thugs. These individuals are now fighting to have their cases remain in youth court while the crown is stating its case for the adult court. To my knowledge these two thugs have been in the system before. These are young murderers and they deserve to be held responsible for their crimes. However in this case maybe the law will be on their side. Maybe they will be tried in youth court and receive a much lower sentence than they would have received had they been tried in an adult court.
The family of Clayton McGloan is fighting through a petition asking for fair justice. The pain and the suffering they have gone through can only be felt when we attend town hall meetings and we listen to the family's pain.
Canadians have seen these kinds of cases all too often in the last 15 years. They have seen young murderers and rapists receive sentences that do not fit the severity of the crimes. Why? Because they are children. Because we say they do not know any better. I believe that many of the kids do know better.
The official opposition on behalf of Canadians has been calling for changes to the Young Offenders Act. Thankfully something is finally on the table for us to debate in this House. We know that the justice minister introduced a new youth criminal justice act as a replacement for the Young Offenders Act. It is my hope that the Young Offenders Act will be assigned to the garbage. It has been a failure and Canadians have had to suffer the consequences for far too long.
The justice minister upon taking her job promised that introducing the new young offenders legislation would be her top priority. That was two years ago. I had hoped that after such a long delay the justice minister would have put forward legislation to deal with the complicated issue of youth crime in an effective way, yet the youth criminal justice act fails again to deliver what Canadians expect.
The official opposition recognizes that there are two elements to youth crime. One is the rehabilitation aspect and the other is an accountability aspect. My colleague spoke very eloquently about what he felt the government should be addressing in the way of rehabilitation programs.
We have a youth justice committee in my riding. This committee has been doing a tremendous job in trying to address youth crime through community sentencing and rehabilitation programs. It has been quite successful. This is the kind of program we need to encourage.
We must also teach the consequences of actions. We must make youths aware of the severity of their actions when they cross the boundary and hurt people. That should be a fundamental aspect. Revenue Canada makes good examples of taxpayers who have not paid the money they owe. Revenue Canada comes crashing down by charging penalties and interest from the first day that they do not pay. Why? Because the government needs to set an example for others. Lo and behold, here we have people committing crimes and it is said there has to some leeway.
I heard a colleague from the Bloc address this. I did take exception to some of his comments when he addressed the issue of western Canada somehow being a right-wing very uncompassionate society. I beg to differ with that. I appreciate the fact that there is a lower crime rate in Quebec. As my colleague said, it is something we can learn from, but to say that we are uncompassionate is not appropriate. But the Bloc is the separatist party so that is fine.
When going through this new legislation the feelings of the members of the official opposition was that this is simply the old Young Offenders Act presented in a different colour and format. Some provisions in this bill appear to be tougher. However, there is always an opportunity down the road for provinces or courts to provide exceptions and maintain the status quo.
I believe the minister has had to appease all the different philosophies within her own government. Some want tougher legislation and others think the situation is just fine. Nobody wants to listen to what Canadians are saying.
In this House petition after petition has been presented asking for a fair justice system. The government's thinking is that perhaps this is some kind of paper in the basement that does not need to be addressed. Hence the bill that has come forward has all the loopholes one can imagine.
Throughout the process the minister claimed she needed time to consult with the provinces. We recognize the provinces have an important role to play. We have to understand just what the various regions of the country were wanting in the overall youth laws.
A great deal of this information has already been gathered by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. The committee spent many months conducting hearings from coast to coast. The committee listened to the provinces. It spent almost $500,000 to provide a comprehensive report with a number of recommendations toward significant changes to the youth laws. That is how our parliamentary democracy works. The committee conducts hearings and receives presentations.
The provinces are not satisfied with the legislation. The minister of justice for Alberta, John Havelock, wrote to the federal minister complaining that there had not been adequate consultation.
He was concerned that the federal government had failed to address some of the major concerns of many provinces. Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and P.E.I. all wanted a number of significant changes. Perhaps the most important was the reduction of the age of criminal accountability from 12 to 10. One speaker from my own town, Calgary's police chief Christine Silverberg, criticized the government changes as not going far enough with violent children under the age of 12.
We should not be surprised that this recommendation was not included. Not only did the government ignore its partners in the youth justice process. It ignored the justice committee and its report which included a similar recommendation, a committee that is made up of a majority of government members.
The government continues to attack the official opposition. I will conclude by saying that the official opposition, throughout this debate, will indicate its concerns and the shortfalls of the government.