David Lametti

[Justice, October 20th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the hon. member for being reappointed to his role as critic.

Unfortunately, I disagree with him on his view of Bill C-5. Bill C-5 is about serious crimes getting serious consequences and getting the attention and resources they deserve. We are doing that by taking the focus off of instances where incarceration is not the solution, hence the focus on removing a certain number of mandatory minimum penalties. Serious situations, where public safety is at issue, will still get serious consequences.

[Democratic Institutions, October 20th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the oath is in our Constitution and it is a long-standing tradition in our parliamentary system. It is above all an oath to our institutions and our democracy, of which the sovereign is part. The Canadian courts have clearly established that it is not an oath to the person, now King Charles III, but to the state he represents.

[Justice, October 17th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the safety of Canadians is our number one priority. We support victims, and we are working with them precisely to make the system safer. With Bill C-21, we are increasing penalties for crimes related to gang activity and gun smuggling.

We are strengthening the ban on firearms, which are designed solely to kill people. That is what we are doing and what needs to be done to make Canada safer.

[Justice, October 17th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, serious crimes in this country will always be dealt with seriously. What we are doing on a variety of fronts is being smart on crime so that we can dedicate more resources to attacking precisely the kinds of crimes that my hon. member has raised.

We will continue to go in that direction. As former Supreme Court Justice Michael Moldaver, someone who could never be accused of being soft on crime, has stated, we absolutely need to dedicate more of the resources in the system to fighting precisely these kinds of crimes.

[Justice, October 3rd, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for London West for her question and excellent work.

I was proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Benjamin Roebuck as the new ombudsman for victims of crime. He is a renowned expert who has conducted research on victims' rights for 15 years. We will continue to support victims in our justice system in all possible ways, whether by investing in organizations to help them, appointing a new ombudsman with a high degree of expertise or using the system's resources to fight serious crime. We will always support victims.

[Justice, September 29th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I am a Quebecker, I am a Montrealer, and I am aware of what is happening in Montreal, both in my riding as well as in other ridings in Montreal.

Our goal with Bill C-5 is to increase resources to deal with serious crimes, which will always have serious consequences. With Bill C-21, we are increasing the maximum penalties for firearms offences.

We are moving in the right direction to get tough on the crimes that deserve it.

[Justice, September 29th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I would invite the hon. member to actually look at the transcript of that Senate hearing. If he believes an indigenous woman with a problematic addiction, who is trying to keep bread on the table for her three children, sells some prescription drugs on the side and then gets tackled with a minimum mandatory penalty, is the kind of serious offender we need to lock up for that period of time, I would suggest he is absolutely wrong.

Bill C-5 would allow us to allow people like that mother to get the help they need, all the while spending more time, judicial resources and penal resources on the serious drug traffickers.

[Justice, September 29th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, serious crimes in the country will always carry with them serious consequences. Indeed, the crimes the hon. member is talking about do attract serious penalties.

What we would be doing with Bill C-5 is entirely the opposite. Failed Conservative policies on tough-on-crime, with minimum mandatory penalties and no possibility of conditional sentence orders, have only clogged the justice system with less serious cases that have resulted in the over-incarceration of indigenous, Black and racialized people in our system.

We are removing those to spend more time and more resources precisely on the offences about which he is talking.

[Justice, September 28th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, public safety is our number one priority. With Bill C‑5, we are eliminating failed policies from the Harper era that have created a backlog in the justice system and have filled our prisons and justice system with people who committed minor offences. We must use these resources for serious offences and serious crimes. Those who commit serious crimes will always receive serious sentences.

[Justice, September 28th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the security of Canadians is our absolute priority. What we are doing with Bill C-5 is allowing for more resources to be spent on the very serious crimes that the hon. member is referring to. Those serious crimes will always carry with them serious consequences.

However, all that the failed Conservative tough-on-crime policies left us with was not greater public security but increased overrepresentation of indigenous and Black people in our criminal justice system. We are reversing that by putting the resources on the serious crime, where they ought to be.