Mr. Speaker, shoplifters, vandals and other criminals are terrorizing small businesses in Toronto's Chinatown. The victims of crime are often recent immigrants who own and operate their own small businesses.
Every dollar's worth of merchandise that is stolen is a dollar less a store owner can spend on food and shelter for his family, a dollar less for his children's university tuition, a dollar less for his family's retirement.
Shoplifting is costing Chinatown grocer David Chen, owner of the Lucky Moose Food Mart on Dundas Street West, as much as $50,000 a year. Chen employs ten people and has a family of four. David Chen is a victim of property crime. There are many more small business owners in Toronto's Chinatown just like him.
[Member spoke in Mandarin and provided the following translation:]
Our Conservative government has introduced legislation in support for victims of crime and we will continue this support. We believe that the primary purpose of a criminal justice system is not the welfare of the criminal; it is the protection of law-abiding citizens, their property and their families.