moved for leave to introduce Bill C-238, an act to amend the Criminal Code (conditional sentencing).
Mr. Speaker, conditional sentencing was introduced in the 35th parliament as Bill C-41. Since that time, tens of thousands of conditional sentences have been handed down. Most of these sentences are for petty crimes. However, many have been handed down for crimes as serious as sexual assault, manslaughter, drunk driving and drug trafficking.
In 1997 the British Columbia Court of Appeal stated in a decision regarding conditional sentencing that “if parliament had intended to exclude certain offences from consideration, it should have done so in clear language”.
My bill does precisely that. It lists the offences to be excluded from any possibility of receiving a conditional sentence.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)