Mr. Speaker, in all the years I have lived in the Hamilton area, I have never seen a crime crisis like this and I have never seen this level of concern for safety among residents in our community. In fact, the president of the Hamilton Police Association recently raised alarm bells about repeat offenders.
In the Hamilton area, 89% of crimes committed with a firearm are with guns smuggled into Canada from the United States. On top of that, vehicle thefts are up, break-ins are up and shootings are up. Shockingly, just 30 individuals in Hamilton are responsible for 196 charges. That is not just a statistic; it is a stinging indictment of the Liberal government’s failed justice system. Its soft-on-crime approach is failing people in my community. Dangerous criminals are being released on bail only to reoffend. Canadians deserve to be able to sleep at night without worry.
Common-sense Conservatives will fix this. We will stop the crime; we will enforce jail, not bail; and we will restore safety to Canadian neighbourhoods.