Mr. Speaker, our Conservative government is committed to putting the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals.
For far too long our system has embodied the comments made by Trudeau-era Solicitor General J. P. Goyer, who said the Liberals:
...have decided from now on to stress the rehabilitation of individuals rather than protection of society.
Our Conservative government could not disagree more. That is why we introduced the victims bill of rights: to bring victims back to their rightful place at the heart of the justice system.
The correctional system should be about correcting criminal behaviour to ensure that whatever brought individuals behind bars will not be repeated. That is why we will not cave to special interest groups that think that while double-bunking is fine for our military, it is not quite good enough accommodation for our prisoners. We will definitely not cave to the special interests who want to allow prisoners to have pornography in their cells.
On this side of the House, we want prison to actually mean something. I call on the NDP and the Liberals to stop putting the rights of convicted common criminals ahead of the rights of law-abiding Canadians.