Lost her last election, in 2000, with 32% of the vote.
Nunavut Act October 28th, 1998
Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. It should be extended. For example Atlin, B.C. is barely 100 miles from Whitehorse, Yukon. It would make sense for those people to be able to access a justice system very close to them because that is where they travel to buy their groceries.
We could look at a whole system for remote areas of the country.
Bill C-57 could set the precedent. If people in Nunavut have it, do not other people in Canada deserve as much?
Nunavut Act October 28th, 1998
One reason is that there will be less cost because there will only be one level of judges to pay. Nunavut will not be paying at the federal and territorial levels, but only at one level. There will only be one circuit, not two or three. It will go to the same community, but will deal with different issues.
I believe justice should be able to move forward and change. Laws should be alive. They should not be dead issues. If they were we would have a very hard time when a decision came out the other end because it would be so upsetting and we would not know how it happened. If we as citizens were involved with our justice system, then we would not be shocked at discrepancies in sentencing.
Who is this judge coming to my community? They have no idea who they are.
This bring justice closer to the people. It is a good and important change.
Nunavut Act October 28th, 1998
That is important. That is a good change. That is what they need, that is what they want and that is what they have defined.
Nunavut Act October 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, according to my way of thinking, justice is responsive to those who it serves. That does not mean the laws change, it just means that the way we handle the situation changes. Because the justice system is not working in the rest of Canada does not mean that Nunavut should not take the step to make its justice system work for it by having the courts there more regularly.
Those who live in a large centre have a court. They know they will be able to access that court, but that is not the case for people living in the north. They have to wait until the circuit comes to them. This sort of nomadic court system is a strain on those people who always have to be travelling, but they are willing to undertake that to make sure justice is swift and accessible—
Nunavut Act October 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the first thing I saw about Bill C-57 was the newspaper headline “Nunavut gets unique court system, single level of justice seen as ideal for the vast territories”.
This is important because it is true and it sets an incredibly high standard for the north. The Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories are going to want to match this standard of justice. Where Nunavut goes, the others are sure to follow.
In speaking of the high standard, Nunavut is really to be envied. It is a territory that is able to start from scratch. It is creating a justice system that is going to suit the people, that is going to be accountable to them, that is going to respond to them. Because Nunavut has an official language, a First Nations language, the court will now have to respond to people in their own language.
Justice is an expression of our sovereignty. Even though there are only 26,000 people in Nunavut, only so many people in the Northwest Territories and only so many people in Yukon, does that mean they are not entitled to justice? Does it mean that because it costs too much we cannot have justice? Does it mean we can only have a court once a year because we are just too far away, or do we just scoop everyone up and send them somewhere else to have justice administered to them?
This bill is important because it is very clear in the parameters of what our country is and should be. Even if a person lives in some nook, cranny or frozen place, justice belongs to them as it does to everyone else in this country.
In the north, justice is often like a big woolly mammoth that has come trundling into town trampling all over everything. It leaves behind this big mess and a community in disarray. People from that community are sent off to a federal penitentiary thousands of miles away. If they have to serve anything more than two years less a day, they are out of their territory. There is no community support. It is absolutely devastating to try to reintegrate back into the community after that time. The Judges Act will deal in part with some of those issues because it would bring justice closer to the people of the north.
I recently held a town hall in the north on justice issues and the discussion paper the justice minister put out on the defences of provocation, self-defence and defence of property. People did not necessarily want to talk about just those issues. They wanted to discuss the broader topic of justice and how people felt so alienated from it, that justice did not belong to them. The legal system really has nothing to do with anybody. This justice system and the single level of court will allow people to feel a part of a justice system.
People in the north have always been pushing for change to make a more accountable system, something that does not just put people away without any recourse. In fact they have been pioneers in community justice in developing circle sentencing. I sat in on one of the first circle sentencings and others in subsequent years.
Circle sentencing is not an easy or a light process. It demands an incredible amount of dedication from the communities involved. We can compare it to putting someone in custody where usually two or three shifts of people, including cooks and cleaners, look after those in custody. In circle sentencing, if one person agrees to look after someone who has been sentenced, it means they have only the resources of themselves and the community to keep an eye on and to help encourage and push that person toward a better way of life. It is a huge undertaking. Any community or individual that is willing to go through circle sentencing deserves a lot of recognition for the work they do.
When it comes to justice for First Nations people, and there are a lot of First Nations people in the north, everyone knows they are poor. They live in third world conditions. They fill most of the prisons across this country and are overrepresented. Their cultures are not taken into account. Their social condition is reprehensible. It is not right to send everybody off to federal penitentiaries.
Jumping to the meat and bones of the bill, it creates a single level court system for the territory. It will maintain the substantive and procedural rights equivalent to those enjoyed elsewhere in Canada.
A single level court system may not have too much meaning for those who have not been involved in justice in the territories. Generally there is the federal level. A crown prosecutor is appointed and an accused may go in front of this judge or may wait until a particular level of court is available to hear the accused. The federal appointment comes from Ottawa. Therefore, it is not necessary that they respond to the community they serve because it is not their boss by any stretch of the imagination. This certainly makes them less responsive to community demands.
The single level trial system will have regular and more frequent resolution of cases. This is critical in small northern communities as the isolation can be quite unbearable.
The bill amends the Criminal Code to provide for new structures and procedures for the Nunavut court of justice in the following areas: the jurisdiction of judges; the summary conviction appeals; a new statutory form of review; judicial interim release; and elections as to mode of trial. Again one of the official languages is First Nations and so the court will have to respond to that as well. The legislation has some unique parts. I will read amended subsection 35(1) of the Nunavut Act:
A judge of the Nunavut Court of Justice has and may exercise and perform, anywhere in Canada, all the powers, duties and functions of the Court with respect to any criminal offence committed or charged to have been committed in Nunavut.
I have one main reservation with this bill which concerns the appointment of judges. There is no screening process in parliament for federal judge appointments. Candidates do not come before the parliamentary committees for justice or aboriginal affairs. We cannot expect the same level of responsiveness and accountability that would be there if the territory itself were nominating and screening the judges they want for their courts. That is a big concern because it echoes what is going on here already. That is one thing we should not carry forward in creating the new system.
The NDP will be supporting this bill, with some reservations. I look forward to considering it in committee.
Petitions October 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I have a petition to present on the defence of provocation. The signatories express concern about the defence mitigating a murder charge down to manslaughter on the basis of an insult or a perceived insult, not on the basis of the actions of the person who was killed.
This is probably just in time because the Minister of Justice has released a discussion paper on this very topic and I hope the minister will take the petition into account.
Aboriginal Affairs October 28th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, in January the minister of aboriginal affairs released the Gathering Strength document but it does not deal with food security in the north.
In September a Manitoba report made recommendations to deal with the outrageous costs of food in first nation communities.
Third world status, poverty and hunger should not be a way of life for aboriginal families and aboriginal children. I am sure the minister wants to move heaven and earth to feed these families. How is she going to make sure they eat well this winter?
Committees Of The House October 27th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member if he sees this as an overall pattern in the direction that the government goes. The government denies or mismanages resources and forces people off the land and away from their resources, whether from the land or water. Then the government makes it doubly difficult because the former support of unemployment insurance is no longer there to carry people through a hard time.
I do not know if anyone in the House realizes this, but the fishery in the Yukon was severely affected this year. Very few salmon came up the river. The people who depend on it to catch three to fifteen fish a day to make it through the winter are no longer going to be able to do that. People do not think of the Yukon River flowing up into Dawson but it is dependent on the oceans and how we manage our oceans and the fisheries.
The Environment October 23rd, 1998
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of the Environment. The Marwell tar pit is located in the centre of the city of Whitehorse, Yukon and it has been designated a contaminated site. For decades it has been draining toxins, including PCBs, into the water system. A man was trapped and died in the tar pit.
Under these conditions I would like the minister to make a commitment to clean up this tar pit.
Petitions October 21st, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I have a petition of over 80 pages of signatures. The petition states that Canada should declare Iran as an unsafe country and that government stop all deportations to Iran immediately.
The petitioners ask this because in the last 20 years the Islamic republic of Iran has executed over 100,000 women, men and children in Iran and has assassinated hundreds of its opposition members abroad as well.
They ask this since no one is allowed to openly express political positions in Iran without danger of execution.