Madam Speaker, the government is not interested in evidence. If we look at Nova Scotia, my province, African Nova Scotians make up 4% of the population. They make up 8% of the poor population. That is double.
The Mi'kmaq, our first nations Canadians in Nova Scotia, make up 2% of the population, but they make up 4% of the poor population. Again, that is double.
When we go into the prisons in Nova Scotia, I can tell members who they will see there. It is our first nations citizens and African Nova Scotians. It is the people who come from poverty and who live in communities with so many social problems.
Instead of actually trying to address those social problems and prevent crime from happening, we are just locking people up. That is not the solution by any stretch of the imagination.
Time and time again we have experts who come in and say, “That is not the way to do it”. They are ignored because the government is not interested in evidence. It is just interested in a crime and punishment agenda.