Mr. Speaker, I listened to my hon. colleague's statements, and I would like to remind the members of the two primary goals of this bill.
First, we do not want a young person who has committed a violent crime to be allowed back into the community while awaiting trial. This kind of thing has happened before. I am thinking of the case in Nova Scotia that someone mentioned where young people who had committed violent acts were allowed back into the community, where they committed more violent crimes. Innocent bystanders were killed or seriously injured by these youths, who were not detained while awaiting trial. That is what we are addressing. We want to make sure that judges have the power to order pretrial detention.
Second, we want judges to take two things into account when sentencing young people who have committed violent crimes.
The first is deterrence. We want to ensure that the youth understands what is going on and that other youths who might be considering committing similar acts—crimes of violence against the person—will be discouraged from doing so. We want judges to take this into account when determining a sentence.
The second is denunciation. We want the sentence to show that society disapproves of the acts committed.
We want judges to use both elements of this framework when handing down sentences in order to protect our seniors and society in general.
I am thinking of those news reports about youths committing violent acts on buses against people who were just minding their own business.
That is what we hope to accomplish with our bill.