Mr. Speaker, it is time to speak plainly today, because families in Surrey and across Canada deserve the plain truth, not another round of empty words from Ottawa. Over the past months, as I have met with business owners and families across Surrey, Cloverdale, Clayton and Langley City, the conversations have been sobering. Everywhere I go, people lower their voices, look over their shoulder and tell me the same thing: “Tamara, we don't feel safe anymore.”
Not long ago, I hosted a small business round table in my office with several local business owners. One of them runs a handful of small restaurants in Surrey, family-run places where the food is good, the staff knows people's names and the community keeps them alive. He sat across from me, hands folded the way people do when they are trying to stay composed, and I asked him how things were going. He took a moment and said that staff had been followed to their cars, that they had had threats, that they were watching the parking lot instead of customers and that this was not how he wanted to run his business.
He was not angry, nor dramatic; he was simply describing the quiet fear that has settled over too many hard-working families in our community, families that came here believing Canada was safe, stable and full of opportunity. He was sad, and that should trouble every single one of us, because what he described is not normal. It is not the Canada that we built. It is not the future we intend to hand down to our children and grandchildren.
Surrey is facing something no community should ever face. We have seen extortion-related shootings at banquet halls, restaurants, insurance offices and family homes. We have seen respected businessmen murdered. We have seen houses shot at twice in the same week because criminals felt confident enough to return. In neighbourhoods like Cloverdale, neighbourhoods that once symbolized calm, quiet and safety, families are now installing cameras, reinforcing doors and staying home instead of accepting invitations to birthdays and family gatherings. This is not how Canadians should live.
When the Liberal government introduced Bill C-14, people hoped that Ottawa had finally woken up and wanted to fix the mess it had created. They hoped this would be the moment the government understood the scale of the crisis: that extortion, gun crime and organized criminal activity were no longer occasional headlines but daily realities for innocent people. They hoped that at the very least, there would be a sign of courage, but hope collapses when leadership fails to show up. Unfortunately, Bill C-14 does not meet this moment. It is not strong enough. It is not decisive enough. It lacks the moral clarity that a government needs when the safety of its people is on the line.
To understand why we need to look at how we got here. Criminals in this country have learned that there is very little to fear from our justice system. They have learned that punishment is often shockingly lenient. They have learned that the federal government's reforms over the past decade have tilted the balance away from holding criminals accountable toward releasing criminals faster than police can file the paperwork.
The principle of restraint, the rule that police and courts must favour release on the least strict bail conditions, remains intact. Bill C-14 would not remove it. That principle may sound gentle and humane, but in reality it tells violent offenders that the justice system is more concerned about their comfort than our safety.
Mandatory minimum penalties, the clearest signal a country can send that violent crime will not be tolerated, were dismantled by the government in 2022 with Bill C-5. What Canadians need to know today is that Bill C-14 would not restore them, not one. As a result, there is no certainty in sentencing, no clarity and no firm line drawn in the sand.
Worse still, crimes involving firearms, robberies, drug trafficking and even extortion can still be punished with house arrest, not with real jail time and not in a secure facility. This is house arrest in the very neighbourhoods where the victims live. It is impossible to overstate the danger of such a system.
I do not say this lightly: The criminals orchestrating these extortion networks understand our laws better than most members of Parliament. They understand the loopholes. They understand that even if they are caught, the consequences may be minimal. They operate with boldness because the law allows them boldness.
Among G7 countries, Canada stands out for how frequent and fast-growing extortion has become in our national crime data. This is a crisis created by Liberal laws putting violent offenders ahead of victims. Let me repeat: This crisis is the direct result of Liberal government choices, and the numbers speak with brutal clarity. Violent crime has risen sharply since 2015. Firearms offences have more than doubled. Extortion has risen at rates that should alarm every elected official in this country. Sexual assaults have increased dramatically, with women paying the highest price for the government's softness.
This brings me to an equally painful truth: Violence against women remains an afterthought in federal justice policy. I have spoken with women here in Surrey, Cloverdale and Langley who are still carrying the trauma of assault. Some cannot sleep. Some avoid certain streets or times of day, and some feel unsafe in their own homes. When they turn to the justice system for protection, they are too often met with leniency for the offender.
Bill C-14 could have changed that. It could have drawn a line so that repeat violent offenders, sexual predators and men who harm women would face serious consequences, but it does not. It would keep in place the same mindset that lets far too many dangerous people slip through the cracks. It would keep the possibility of simple house arrest for violent predators. It would keep the system tilted toward giving offenders second chances while leaving women to manage the fear on their own.
A government that claims to defend women cannot continue to defend the men who harm them. This is why the Conservative position is so different and so necessary. We believe the first duty of any government is to protect its citizens, not to soften the truth and not to sugarcoat a danger that is staring families in the face. Its duty is to protect.
This means restoring mandatory minimum sentences for serious violent crimes, because a society that will not offer consequences has no hope of restoring order. It means ending the era of get-out-of-jail-free cards for violent offenders. The law must defend the innocent before it comforts the guilty. It also means ending house arrest for crimes that were never meant to be served at home. There is nothing compassionate about allowing a violent offender to live steps away from the people he has terrorized. Firm justice is not cruelty; firm justice is protection.
It means strengthening our border and supporting our police, not with announcements but with action. For too long, criminals have smuggled guns into this country faster than the government has responded. For too long, police have been asked to do more with fewer resources. A safe nation requires a government that gives law enforcement every tool it needs, not one that merely stands at a podium promising to do something someday.
Let me close with this. I often think about my grandchildren and the Canada they deserve: a Canada where children pedal their bikes in their neighbourhoods without fear, a Canada where women walk to their cars without hesitation and a Canada where business owners open their doors in the morning without checking the shadows in the parking lot. We can build that Canada again, but we will not build it with timid, half measures or softened legal language. We will build it with clarity, with conviction and with the courage to declare that safety is not optional; it is foundational.
Bill C-14 is not enough. Canadians deserve a justice system that stands up straight, speaks plainly and puts their safety first, not as an afterthought but as the beginning of every decision. We must place public safety at the very top of the law. Nothing should outrank it. We need to restore mandatory jail time for those who use firearms and for those who commit sexual offences. A nation that will not punish these crimes cannot call itself serious about justice.
We have to end the absurd practice of allowing house arrest for robbery, drug trafficking and firearms offences. These are not minor offences. They are acts that tear the fabric of our communities. When a person has shown time and time again that they are violent, the law must begin from a simple position: that they remain behind bars to keep the public safe. These are not radical ideas. They are the minimum standards of a country determined to protect its citizens.
Canadians are resilient and decent, but they are also tired of watching their neighbourhoods grow less safe while Ottawa proposes weak laws.
