Mr. Speaker, once again, this is consistent with the two basic tenets of this legislation: keeping Canadians safe and safeguarding Canadian rights and freedoms. We need to make sure that we accomplish both of those objectives with the same degree of enthusiasm and quality. Doing that, in part, requires that we say explicitly in this legislation that where offenders may be young people, the existing provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act would apply to the proceedings involving young people, to ensure that the thoughtful provisions of that legislation that are particularly designed and shaped to deal with young people in trouble with the law would apply in cases that engage national security, just as they would apply in respect of any other criminal matter. That is the point here: to make sure that the Youth Criminal Justice Act has the same force and effect with respect to proceedings under national security as it would have in relation to any other criminal matter. In our view, that is an appropriate way to proceed. It would achieve the objective of protecting Canadians and also of safeguarding rights and freedoms.
In the House of Commons on May 28th, 2018. See this statement in context.