Anne McLellan

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, September 25th, 2000]

moved:

Motion No. 23

That Bill C-3, in Clause 2, be amended a ) by replacing line 30 on page 2 with the following:

“paragraph 41(2)( n ), ( n .1), ( p ) or ( q ), means the pe-” b ) by replacing line 37 on page 2 with the following:

“under paragraph 41(2), ( n .1), ( p ) or ( q ).”

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, September 25th, 2000]

moved:

Motion No. 4.

That Bill C-3, in the preamble, be amended by replacing lines 1 to 34 on page 1 with the following:

“WHEREAS members of society share a responsibility to address the developmental challenges and the needs of young persons and to guide them into adulthood;

WHEREAS communities, families, parents and others concerned with the development of young persons should, through multi- disciplinary approaches, take reasonable steps to prevent youth crime by addressing its underlying causes, to respond to the needs of young persons, and to provide guidance and support to those at risk of committing crimes;

WHEREAS information about youth justice, youth crime and the effectiveness of measures taken to address youth crime should be publicly available;

WHEREAS Canada is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and recognizes that young persons have rights and freedoms, including those stated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights, and have special guarantees of their rights and freedoms;

AND WHEREAS Canadian society should have a youth criminal justice system that commands respect, takes into account the interests of victims, fosters responsibility and ensures accountability through meaningful consequences and effective rehabilitation and reintegration, and that reserves its most serious intervention for the most serious crimes and reduces the over-reliance on incarceration for non-violent young persons;”

[Impaired Driving, September 20th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, indeed I have had the opportunity to write to my colleague the minister of transport in the province of Quebec indicating my willingness to pursue the suggestions that the hon. minister has made. I have instructed my deputy minister to take this up with his fellow deputy ministers at their meeting in November.

[Organized Crime, September 20th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I believe it was agreed yesterday by federal officials and Quebec officials that it would be important to consult with provincial and territorial counterparts and that it would be important to have discussions with law enforcement authorities. As soon as those discussions are completed, we will be in a position to act. However, we will not be rushed into passing a law that is not the very best that we can make to protect all Canadians from organized crime.

[Organized Crime, September 20th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned yesterday, federal officials had very constructive discussions with their Quebec counterparts. There are a number of fronts on which we will be working. One is looking at possible legislative change. Indeed the government of Quebec has done some very good work in that regard, and we will be working with them further.

We will be consulting with the other provinces and the territories and with law enforcement authorities before we move forward, but I can assure the hon. member we are taking this matter very seriously and we will be moving forward very soon.

[Organized Crime, September 19th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc says we move too quickly on youth justice and the Alliance says we move too slowly on youth justice. At the end of the day we are going to do the right thing.

For the party that talks the language and the rhetoric of provincial rights and provincial autonomy, it is interesting that it does not want to consult with the provinces and the territories. On this side of the House we understand that justice is a shared jurisdiction and we will do that work before we pass a law.

[Organized Crime, September 19th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, first, let me say on behalf of everybody on this side of the House, it is great to have the hon. member for Langley—Abbotsford back.

In response to the hon. member's question, I have obviously discussed the issue of organized crime with my colleague, the attorney general of Ontario. We have meetings today with representatives from the attorney general of Quebec and the public security minister of Quebec. We are going to be talking to other provinces and territories.

In fact, it is fair to say and I have already said in the House that we will be in a position to make changes to the anti-gang provisions in the criminal code that reflect many of the concerns raised by the government of Quebec, the government of Ontario, police forces—

[Young Offenders, September 19th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, there is no double standard. In both cases we have listened and we have consulted, not only with the province and people of Quebec but all provinces and territories and all people in the country who have an interest in this area.

Let me again extend an olive branch to the hon. member. We know that the youth justice system in the country is not serving our young people well enough. I ask the hon. member and all members of the House to work with us to ensure this new youth justice legislation is passed.

[Young Offenders, September 19th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, we have said many times in the House that our new youth justice legislation is about accountability. It is about responsibility and about providing provinces like Quebec with the flexibility to continue the programs they have in place to work with young people in their provinces.

I find it interesting that today the Quebec Human Rights Commission indicates that there is room for improvement in the youth justice system in Quebec. Therefore, with new federal resources I look forward to working with the hon. member to ensure that even in Quebec we are working together on behalf of Canada's youth.

[Organized Crime, September 19th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, as I made plain yesterday, we are looking at all possible measures in terms of dealing with the challenges of organized crime. I made it plain yesterday that we believe there is much we can do both on the enforcement side and on the legislation side that does not involve us using the notwithstanding clause.