Madam Speaker, once again, in my speech regarding the bill to amend the National Defence Act, I will discuss some socio-cultural nuances that are important as we study the proposed legislation.
My experience in criminal law and, particularly, my years of professional experience in the itinerant court—the circuit court—in northern Quebec, have given me some perspective to be able to look at the underlying causes of juvenile delinquency and why young people identify with criminal organizations.
I am well aware that this bill has to do with suppressing criminal organization recruitment. I will now take my speech in another direction. I would like to discuss where the group mentality among young people comes from, and why this kind of organization appeals to young people.
I have seen first-hand the devastating consequences of targeted groups being marginalized, most often because of their ethnicity, so today I would like to discuss the highly questionable reasons why criminal organizations operate within legal jurisdictions that have a high ethnocultural population.
As I have said in the past, I worked at the legal aid office in my riding for two years. During those two years and few months, I was expected to travel with the itinerant court north of the 52nd parallel, particularly to the communities of Kawawachikamach, Matimekush and Unamen Shipu, one being a Naskapi community and the other two Innu communities.
Given my youth when I started working at the legal aid office, the young people who were facing criminal charges under the youth criminal justice system, were almost always inclined to turn to me. I learned early on to apply the principles of social intervention in the handling of my files. I soon realized that many of these young people were naturally drawn to stick together in groups out of an instinct for self-preservation, because they lacked means and parental role models. They had to turn to alternative means for their own survival and subsistence. To these young people, coming together in groups and joining forces was the obvious solution.
By now it must be clear that my argument focuses mainly on highlighting the circumstances that lead to juvenile delinquency. As members are aware, an approach based on identifying, preventing and correcting elements of deviance must be applied at the first signs of deviant behaviour in the individual.
At the time, I put a great deal of effort into social intervention with young people, because the positive impact this can have is particularly noticeable among that age group. It is less noticeable among older clients, considering the fact that individuals who have adopted a deviant or criminal lifestyle for some time are less likely to change their behaviour, depending on the age and willingness of each individual, of course.
Principles linked to an ethnocultural analysis of factors underlying the appearance of gangs of youth—street gangs—invite us to consider a number of elements having to do with the image of particular ethnic groups as they are portrayed by the mass media.
I would now like to discuss the attraction of the gangster-rapper lifestyle for young people. In my community, it is very noticeable, since many kids walk around wearing t-shirts celebrating street gangs and bearing the images of well-known rappers in the United States.
I know the media rely heavily on these images, because they are big sellers. If young people in a community on the 52nd parallel are walking around wearing these t-shirts, I imagine they are popular around the world. Since the early 1990s, the media have been promoting this African-American model. The message that is being sent and the image that is being reflected is that it is possible to live a similar lifestyle if one gets involved in crime and joins a street gang, whether it be the Bloods, the Crips or any other such gang.
The goal of all this is to sell CDs, although now, in 2012, it is more about selling the promotional material that goes along with them.
That message really resonates with young people in my community, in my riding, because the images they see in those videos often mirror their day-to-day experiences. I am not necessarily suggesting that the South Central Los Angeles lifestyle is the same as that in Uashat, but there are similarities, and that resonates with young people because they can identify with the messages those images are sending. The media therefore have some responsibility in this.
That is why it is important to stop sending young people messages that glorify the criminal lifestyle associated with street gangs. In addition, the media have to re-evaluate their portrayals of situations that exclude and marginalize a particular cultural group. I am more than happy to criticize the media.
There are newspapers in my own riding—I know that this comes up in Montreal and other places too—that, when a young Innu person commits an offence, write about “Innu youth” breaking into a business or “Innu youth” assaulting another individual. The newspapers make a point of identifying the person's ethnicity. However, if a young Quebecker commits a similar offence, there is no mention of his ethnicity. I just wanted to point that out. That kind of information ostracizes young people and further marginalizes them.
Even though gang recruitment activities have been reported across Canada, criminal organizations appear to target marginalized youth who are more likely to buy into the role and fate society has created for them. Young people who belong to targeted minority groups are more likely to be ostracized because the media have already shaped public opinion about their ethnic group.
The acceptance of this stigma and the defeatism that accompanies it makes it that much easier for these young people to adopt a group mentality and join a street gang. It is therefore essential that, when creating legislative measures to prevent the establishment of organized crime cells in the country, the government focuses on the real reasons why these small groups hold such an attraction for these young people, who have to deal with the media's negative portrayal of their ethnic group.
The adversarial conditions experienced every day by many young people from traditionally ostracized social classes are a fertile ground for the formation of groups of young people who struggle with people's negative image of their identity. I spoke about how the young people in my community came together and joined forces. It is a phenomenon that I experienced first hand, since there was a time in my life when I, too, did not have much and I turned to peers who were a bad influence. That is behind me now, but I just wanted to mention it today.
Too often, Innu and Naskapi youth, particularly those who end up in prison, could technically be considered members of street gangs. They were forced into it out of necessity or spite or ultimately, because of a lack of means. Because I grew up in this environment, I can talk only about what I experienced in my daily life and about the experiences of others that have been brought to my attention. Even having enough food to eat is a problem when you do not have a parental figure and you do not have any money. I submit this respectfully.