Mr. Speaker, when it comes to issues such as the environment and justice, the Conservatives like to follow the example of the Americans and their friend George W. Bush. Yet this government's plan for youth justice is based on harsher sentences, an approach that is no longer supported by half of the American states, which believe, with good reason, that this is not the right approach. Like Quebec, the states of Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Washington have proven that reintegration and rehabilitation produce very positive results, both socially and economically.
Can the Minister of Justice explain why he insists on using a counter-productive approach that does not help young people and has been abandoned even by the Americans?