Chuck Cadman

[Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001, May 3rd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I thank the minister for introducing this bill in light of the fact that last Friday when I asked her a question about it, it was suggested that I had my research all wrong and that it would be introduced on Monday. I was vilified by the government benches for having lousy research—

[Justice, April 27th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is mired in an omnibus bill. On another issue, some members of the immigrant community in my constituency paid me a visit a few weeks ago.

Their complaint was that recently introduced legislation does not go far enough. It only removes charitable status from organizations that fund terrorism. It does not stop the actual funding of terrorism.

My constituents want a law that actually makes the funding of terrorism illegal. Will the government commit to such a law in the near future?

[Justice, April 27th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I have another release from the Surrey RCMP. Another elderly man was beaten severely in his own home.

Over two years ago I asked the justice committee to address the issue of home invasions and I was called silly by a Liberal member of the committee. The minister now will undoubtedly talk about Bill C-15, an omnibus bill, in which home invasions is mired. It is not even on the legislative radar screen.

How much longer will Canadians have to wait for some effective legislation on home invasions?

[Justice, April 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is more than resources. Those same officials describe Bill C-7 as elegant but not effective or functional due to its complexity. They also say there was no indepth cost analysis done. Without such an analysis they predict there will be severe problems for many years to come.

These are the people who have to implement and apply this legislative nightmare. Why does the minister refuse to acknowledge their concerns?

[Justice, April 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice says that Bill C-7, the youth criminal justice act, is a result of extensive consultations with the provinces. Yesterday provincial officials appearing before the justice committee seemed to contradict that claim. While they said there may have been a lot of talk, the federal government just plain did not listen.

Does the minister stand by her claim about consultations and, if so, is she just saying that these provincial officials, who must implement her legislation, have it all wrong?

[Heroism, April 24th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I pay tribute to three outstanding young men.

On a Friday night a few weeks ago, Mandeep Jaswal, 17, Gurpreet Awla, 18, and Ryan Parmar, 16, were walking in downtown Vancouver when a young man fell to the sidewalk in front of them. Recognizing that 16 year old Jason Knights was in serious trouble, and rather than just ignoring him, they sprang into action. Jason had been stabbed in the chest.

While Mandeep called 911, Ryan and Gurpreet applied pressure to the wound and administered mouth to mouth resuscitation. An ambulance rushed Jason to hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The three heroes could have ignored Jason and left him to die in the street. One of their teachers suggested it would be nice if the trio got some press because, in her words “the few rotters get tons of media”. I could not agree more.

I invite all members to join me in commending these three young men, Mandeep Jaswal, Gurpreet Awla and Ryan Parmar, not only for their quick action and presence of mind but above all for their compassion toward a fellow human being in his time of need.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, March 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I have a short question for my hon. colleague across the way. He refers to clause 38 under “Sentencing, Purpose and Principles”. I would ask the hon. member to explain to the House why we do not see any mention of deterrence or denunciation.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, March 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his comments. Reflecting on the fact that the member was a school teacher, the association of school board trustees was here last week lobbying each and every one of us to do something about the notification provisions.

I would like to hear the member's comments on the desire of teachers and school administrators that it be mandatory or automatic that they be notified when there is a violent offender or sex offender in the classroom. I would like to hear the member's comments on that.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, March 26th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague across the way for his intervention. It is a pleasure to again be back on the justice committee with him.

I have one question with regard to the provisions for what is essentially parole for young offenders, that is, mandatory supervision, which would equate to half of the length of the incarceration period of the sentence.

The initial idea was to mandate one-half the period. In other words, if there were a three year sentence, one year of that would have to be under supervision as mandated. There were some objections raised to that. I can understand that. I think we could all agree that for certain offenders, especially violent offenders, we would want to see some period of supervision after an incarceration period.

However, some objections were raised to that because it in effect reduced the incarceration period, which a lot of people were saying was too short as it was for violent offences. The government in its wisdom has decided to give that discretion back to the judge, which in effect now takes away any form of mandatory supervision for the most violent offenders.

I wonder if the hon. member would comment on that. What we would suggest is to increase the actual length of time of the sentence and impose the mandatory supervision. To reduce the incarceration period and then take away the supervision for the offenders who probably need it the most does not seem like much of a solution.

[Judges Act, March 22nd, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I am sharing my time with my colleague from Surrey Central.