Mr. Speaker, the bill, of which we are resuming debate at second reading today, was initially introduced on March 11 by the Minister of Justice. Today, we will continue debating the motion moved by the member for Laval-Centre.
First of all it must be remembered that all Quebeckers, without exception, spoke out against and opposed the approach proposed in Bill C-68. This bill is a useless, dangerous, vicious and right-wing, if not extreme right, piece of legislation.
In Quebec, the rate of youth crime is the lowest in Canada. Why? Because Quebec authorities look after teenagers and young people and provide them with a framework.
Bill C-68 would lower the age limit from 16 to 14. This would mean that 14 or 15 year olds could be tried as adults. I wonder if the Minister of Justice has teenage children of her own, if she has raised children.
I had the chance and the pleasure of raising three children who are now young adults, and I have vivid memories of my son, when he was 14, 15 or 16 years of age, playing with his Tonka cars in his twelve by twelve sandbox. He did not look like a criminal, but I often looked at him and observed him. All the kids from the neighbourhood liked to come and play in the sandbox.
My son was no saint at that time. He probably stole carrots from our neighbour's garden, apples from our other neighbour's apple tree, he probably went fishing and exceeded his quota, but he did not become a criminal.
Had he had the bad luck of hanging around with friends who could have had a negative influence on him, he could have become a bad boy. A one night or one week adventure could have landed him in jail. Even at 14 or 15 years of age, he could have been incarcerated in a facility for adults. The danger is that, when a young person is treated as an adult, that young person is still at the learning stage and jail is the worst school there is.
Moreover, under this bill, 14 or 15-year old children who receive an adult sentence could have their name and even their picture published in the newspapers.
The justice minister is a member of the Liberal government, the same party that, under Pierre Elliott Trudeau, slipped a bit towards the left, as hon. members certainly remember, when the House voted to abolish the death penalty. Does the minister today think the exact opposite of what her party stood for at the time? I do not think so.
The justice minister represents the riding of Edmonton West, in Alberta. I wonder if she is not about to give in to the right, to the extremists who say something like “He who kills shall be hanged”.
Before I was elected to this House, I had the pleasure to teach for 27 years. During those 27 years, I met thousands of high school students and often the teachers would see how some of them behaved and comment among themselves “If this young guy does not change soon, he will run into some serious trouble”. I remember we were all in agreement about one student in particular, who seemed to be highly refractory. A few years later, he pulled himself together, and today he is a much sought-after renowned lawyer who earns a respectable living. The entire teaching staff was wrong about him.
Mr. Speaker, you yourself have been young, and you know that young people sometimes go out, in groups of three or four, in a car, and end up in a bar. With such a party atmosphere, one young person in the group could be a little more devious than others and lead good boys and girls to commit an unfortunate act. Thus, one evening's mistake could ruin a lifetime.
I was talking in fact to my colleague from Berthier—Montcalm of the example of David Milgaard, in Saskatchewan, who was imprisoned some 20 years because of an error of justice. It would seem the Government of Saskatchewan is getting ready to compensate him.
When an adolescent is incarcerated for over 20 years, these being the best years of his life, a few million dollars cannot rectify such an error. They are preparing to give him $2 million plus $20,000 a month for life. Naturally, such situations give us pause for reflection.
Ottawa did not consult the provinces, despite the commitments the government made at a meeting in Regina with the various justice ministers in Canada.
My colleague from Berthier—Montcalm also seems to recall this commitment by the Minister of Justice, who comes from Alberta. She seems to want to espouse the ideals of the Reform members increasingly. This is most unfortunate.
I would like in closing to quote the opinions of a number of Quebeckers on Bill C-68.
André Normandeau, a criminologist at the University of Montreal, said, and I quote:
People out west are still reacting the same way they did 20 or 30 years ago, when crime was constantly on the increase. They have retained a highly punitive mindset. Changing the law is too simple and, more importantly, ineffective. Coercion has no effect at all on violent crime, which accounts for 10% of the whole.
So said André Normandeau in the March 13 issue of Le Soleil .
I will now refer to what Cécile Toutant, another criminologist and member of the Quebec Bar Association's subcommittee on young offenders, had to say.
When interviewed on the television program JE , the criminologist expressed her concerns about the reform, because of its potential for automatic referrals to the adult court. The criminologist maintained that, despite the flexibility of the process, there will be the possibility of measures being applied. She wondered why what is unjustified and inappropriate should be made possible.
In Quebec there is unanimous support for rejecting bill C-68 which, I would remind hon. members, lowers the age of adulthood from 16 to 14 years. Placing children of 14 or 15 in penitentiaries, where they will be raped and come under the influence of adult criminals, means the lives of these adolescents will be ruined for ever.