Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, this is a very important issue affecting all of our constituents and has had a lot of public interest for a very long period of time. Our mutual obligation, as all of us know, is to ensure that our citizens are protected, that we have an adequate prevention program, that we work with the provinces, and that we have an integrated plan for rehabilitation throughout our penal system. In that way we can ensure that those who run afoul the law will have the best opportunities for rehabilitation.
On the particular issue of mandatory minimums, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police took a very balanced view built on the work that was done on Bill C-70 in the last Parliament. If it were adopted by the House, we would have seen mandatory minimums implemented in a certain way that would have been reasonable and built on the minimums introduced back in 1995.
I will quote the statement from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which I think is a very balanced approach. It stated:
The CACP supports minimum mandatory sentencing for certain crimes that align with the concept of serious consequences for serious crimes. We also support the elimination of conditional sentences for those convicted of serious offences keeping in mind that conditional sentences do have a place in sentencing principles for judges.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police can be interpreted as taking a balanced view, recognizing that sentencing guidelines have to be put into place for crimes that are quite serious, particularly those involving assault, sexual offences and offences involving organized crime. If we were to utilize a balanced approach, as the parliamentary secretary mentioned during her speech, then we would ensure that the courts have sentencing guidelines that will enable them to protect citizens from a core of a relatively small number of individuals who are responsible for the bulk of the crimes committed in our society.
If we were to speak to police officers in any community, they would generally say there is a core group of individuals in each community who are committing offences on a repeated basis, who have no regard for the law, and often exist in a revolving door within the justice system. It is very frustrating for our police officers on the ground and certainly for those who are victimized by these individuals. A lot of them do not have any respect for the law and maintain a disregard for it knowing full well that the courts frequently will not impose the sentences required for those individuals who are committing these crimes.
Having said that, it would be unwise for us to impose minimum mandatory sentencing for first offenders with extenuating circumstances around the offence committed. Albeit these are rare occasions, but the court should have the flexibility to ensure that these individuals are not simply thrown into prison and the key thrown away after receiving very long sentences for a situation that had mitigating factors. I will provide an example.
Data and information were looked at in certain parts of the world regarding mandatory minimum sentencing for people who had been convicted for possession charges on a repeated basis. It was found that mandatory minimum sentences did not provide a disincentive for the individual to use drugs. In fact, it found that where mandatory minimum sentences were imposed on those convicted of possession charges, there was actually a 3% increase in recidivism. In effect, we are actually making matters worse under these circumstances.
I know that is not the intent of anybody in the House, so I caution the Minister of Justice to look at the facts. A very large body of evidence has been accumulated in looking at this particular issue because this type of sentencing is of great interest to a lot of countries in the western world. I would encourage the minister to look at that information. I know a lot of it is in his department because that is where we obtained a lot of that information. I think he would be wise and prudent to take a look at that.
The minister could also look at sentencing guidelines in a different way. Some jurisdictions have used sentencing guidelines in such a way that prosecution lawyers have turned some individuals into informants. Informants are very important in helping our police officers go after the kingpins of organized crime gangs.
Organized criminal activity is a very serious problem in our country. It is sad to say that crime gangs have found it very attractive to set up shop here for various reasons. In the former government, the minister of justice introduced tougher penalties for organized crime gangs. A lot of those penalties were quite exciting. I will give some examples.
We toughened up the RICO provisions, the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations charges. If we really want to get organized crime gangs we have to go after their money. If we go after the financial underpinnings of organized crime gangs then we are getting to their heart, to their bread and butter, that which fuels their organizations. We toughened up the RICO provisions that would have enabled us to apprehend the proceeds from crime.
In the case of somebody who was convicted of being involved in organized criminal activity, historically it would be up to the crown to prove where the individual received that money. We turned that on its head to make sure that the individual who has been convicted has to prove where the money has come from in order to ensure that the money has been acquired by law-abiding means and if it has not, the courts have the power to extract the money. That very exciting and powerful tool enables our courts to go after the financial underpinnings of organized crime.
There are other things that we have to do. I want to delve into a subject that is a big problem, and that is the issue of substance abuse in our communities. The Prime Minister has made it very clear that he looks at substance abuse as an issue of personal morality. He has lamented that society does not sanction people with substance abuse issues in a negative way.
People who have substance abuse problems have a medical problem, not a judicial problem and they have to be dealt with in that way. If we throw the book at people who have a substance abuse problem, or try to deal with them as a judicial problem, we are going to be making matters worse. We are going to increase their level of criminality. It is certainly not going to address the heart of the problem. While many of these individuals have a substance abuse problem, they also have what is called dual diagnosis. A lot of them have a psychiatric problem as well. It is a toxic marriage between a psychiatric problem and a substance abuse problem. Both feed off each other. It is a profound tragedy for those afflicted.
Mr. Speaker, you have seen it in your community, as have all of us in our communities. Among the individuals living on the streets, we see a subpopulation of homeless individuals who have a substance abuse problem, a psychiatric problem, or both. We are not dealing with this in a very intelligent way. I was dismayed and disheartened last week when the Prime Minister was in Victoria and said that he was not going to continue with the harm reduction strategy that we have been using in east Vancouver to great effect. It has saved a lot of people's lives. He is going to need “more studies”.
The studies have been done and the evidence is very persuasive. Lives have been saved. There has been a decrease in the rates of HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B. If the Prime Minister wants to save lives of individuals who are living in the conditions that none of us would ever want to experience, then he had better look at the facts, remove his sense of morality and look at this as a way of saving people's lives and reducing harm. If he wants to do that he should extend the east Vancouver experience to other communities in Canada. Communities across the country that are trying to grapple with the issue of substance abuse need to adopt these programs. The Prime Minister and his justice minister need to give these programs the green light.
In Victoria, B.C. the chief medical officer, Dr. Richard Stanwick, has put together a very comprehensive and exciting harm reduction strategy based on work that has been done in Frankfurt and other parts of Europe. Those experiences show very clearly that to reduce substance abuse a comprehensive view is what works. If necessary, the person should have access to a safe injection site and the drug. This may rub people the wrong way, but if we do not give the drug, the person will become involved with organized criminal activity and we would not have dealt with a very important part of the picture. It will take some people a while to get their heads around this idea, but if they thought about it properly and logically instead of through the prism of morality, they would see that this would work.
If necessary, the person should have access to a safe injection site and the drug that the person needs. Along with that, if necessary, there should be counselling and psychiatric help because of the dual diagnosis I mentioned earlier. The person also needs skills training and work.
The unions would be wise not to stick their noses into this and try to impose union desires on an issue that is a matter of life and death for these individuals. Work was an integral part of the treatment program for the individuals on the ground. Work gave people in the programs a sense of structure and discipline that they never had before. It gave them a sense of self-worth and meaning and enabled them to connect with other parts of their treatment program that had to happen over a prolonged period of time.
It is an integrated program and it works. In order for that to happen the justice minister has to give the okay. I would put forward a plea to the justice minister and the Prime Minister that they give the green light to Victoria and other parts of Canada to proceed. I ask them not to cut off the ability of these programs to function. They were going to cut off the ability of harm reduction programs to occur in this country. If they did that, they would essentially be signing a death warrant for people who live on the street. It would increase the rates of hepatitis C, hepatitis B and HIV. I am sure that is not what they would want but that is exactly what the consequence of their actions would be if they did not give the green light to these programs forthwith.
There are many people on the street who will be dead a year from now if these programs are not continued or started. I challenge the government to allow them to proceed. It is a matter of basic humanity and justice.
There are a number of other suggestions I would submit to the Minister of Justice. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police came up with a series of recommendations in August 2005. In those recommendations were a number of very cogent solutions that would enable them to do their job as effectively as they do. As I said before, we are deeply grateful for the work they do. They put their lives on the line for the security of all of us. They need to establish an integrated police framework and interoperable radio communications programs. Our former deputy prime minister was working on that. The Minister of Justice would be wise to continue with that program.
We also need to support the RCMP's jetway program. That training program has been extremely effective in enabling RCMP officers to identify criminals and apprehend the proceeds of crime.
Also there is a very important issue on fingerprinting particularly with respect to indictable offences. If individuals are charged with an indictable offence and they do not consent to fingerprinting the arresting authorities have two options: release or jail them. This is ridiculous. It is a major impediment to justice being done and for the individuals to go before the courts and be prosecuted. It is very important that this happen.
I would also suggest that the Minister of Justice work with his provincial counterparts to come up with some way of letting firefighters know when they are going into a suspected grow op or crystal meth house. Right now our firefighters are going into these houses without knowing what awaits them. Many crystal meth labs and grow ops are fires waiting to happen. They are lethal places for firefighters to walk into as they are often booby trapped. I understand that personal privacy issues are involved here, but the lives of our firefighters have to trump the privacy issues of individuals whose homes are suspected of being crystal meth labs or grow ops.
This would be a simple thing to do. I would encourage the Minister of Justice to work with Commissioner Zaccardelli of the RCMP and with its provincial counterparts to come up with a way that firefighters could make a quick call to the local RCMP or police station to find out whether or not they are going into a grow op or crystal meth lab. We would be doing due diligence and justice and would be saving the lives of the firefighters who protect us.
The government cancelled the early learning program that we set up. One program that has been shown to be effective at preventing crime is the headstart program for children, a program which ensures that children's basic needs are met. A 25 year retrospective analysis on headstart programs showed a 50% to 60% reduction in youth crime. Imagine that. Headstart programs can be found in Moncton, New Brunswick and Ypsilanti, Michigan. There is also the Hawaii healthy start program.
When I was putting myself through school, I worked as a guard in a maximum security prison. The high incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome was evident among the prison population. It is estimated that between 40% and 50% of individuals in jail suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol affects. Fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading cause of preventable congenital brain damage in Canada. An individual suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome often has a median IQ of about 70 as well as a host of problems trying to integrate into society. Fetal alcohol syndrome is irreversible, but it is preventable.
Fetal alcohol syndrome can be prevented if individuals are spoken to before they have children. Imagine the cost savings to the health system. Imagine the decline in the prison population. Fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol affects are preventable. The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Health should be gripped with this issue because simple, sensible and cost-effective things can be done to prevent this from happening.
Individuals suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome are often marginalized in school because of their low IQs and the psychological challenges they face. Imagine if that did not happen. Those children would have an incredible opportunity to become integrated members of society.
If the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Health were to look at the headstart program, if they were to build on the early learning program that my party put together, they would be doing something quite remarkable for Canadian society. Youth crime and teen pregnancy rates would be reduced. Kids would stay in school longer, thus reducing their dependence on our social programs.
I have laid out some constructive solutions that I hope the minister will consider. The former parliamentary secretary provided her cogent solutions on minimum mandatory sentencing and the work we did through former Bill C-70. We certainly hope that we can craft a bill that will serve the public well and help our police officers while also reducing criminality within our society.