Mr. Speaker, I could not help but sit here in almost total agreement with my colleague from Pickering—Ajax—Uxbridge in his very eloquent remarks on the subject matter of the legislation for which I know he is quite familiar.
He outlined in particular the messaging that comes from the passage of the legislation. It completely undermines in my opinion the entire sentencing principle of deterrence and denunciation where in effect there is legislation being presented that would condone small amounts of marijuana being in the possession of both youth and adults alike.
The legislation sends entirely the wrong message as far as the public perception is concerned. It indicates a government that is not only out of touch with reality on drug strategy but, as my friend alerted us, on health care issues as well.
There is a great deal of physical harm, mental harm and anguish that can come from this type of drug use. Even small amounts of cannabis have been linked to an altered state in a person's brain. MADD Canada, in particular, has made the point numerous times in its appearances before the justice committee of the dangers of driving under the influence of marijuana, cannabis and drugs generally and the difficulty that police officers have in detecting traces of those substances.
There is mounting evidence that if we were to pass this legislation we would be moving in the polar opposite direction than where we should be headed.
I would suggest that the Statistics Canada report that was released today further undermines the intent and objectives of the legislation. It, in essence, points out that drug use and crimes related to drug use have increased substantially in recent years. In police reported drug crimes the rate has gone up an estimated 42% since the early 1990s and now stands at a 20 year high. Three in four drug related incidents in the year 2002 involved cannabis. About 72% in fact were related to the possession of cannabis.
Obviously the government's drug awareness strategy is not working. I would say, with tongue in cheek, that it has gone up in smoke. Its joint strategy has not worked.
The government has made a token attempt to do the right thing, and I do not mean to make light of this because it is very serious, but this bill would, I suggest, add even more problems in terms of the government's estimated $245 million national drug strategy campaign. According to Statistics Canada, its strategy has been an abysmal failure. I suggest that this bill would cause even greater harm.
The overall drug related crime rate has been on an upward trend since 1993 driven by increases in cannabis possession as well as the production and importation offences.
The cannabis offence rate has risen approximately 80% in the last 10 years, largely as a result of increased numbers of possession offences and trafficking offences declining over the same period of time.
What my friend across the way also pointed out was the discretion and flexibility that already exists within the sentencing provisions of the Criminal Code. To suggest, as many have on the government benches, and the howls that a young person is saddled for life with a criminal record is simply not borne out by the facts. In many, if not most instances, a first time possession offence will result in a conditional discharge or an absolute discharge wherein a young person will be required to perform community service, to give something back to the community as a punishment rather than a fine. In very rare instances would jail or incarceration ever be contemplated for even a second time offence depending, of course, on other aggravating circumstances and the amount of the drug and type of drug involved.
Therefore there is enormous discretion available to judges under the current provisions of the code. For these and other reasons, the Conservative Party of Canada is adamantly opposed to the passage of the legislation. We believe there is far more that can be done: to have a drug prevention strategy, a public education strategy and to give the police the tools and resources they need to combat the rise in more serious drug offences.
My friend also referred, to borrow his phrase, to the gateway drug phenomenon, where a person, whether they are youth or otherwise, uses marijuana, cannabis or hashish and then goes on to use harder, more mind altering drugs than that.
Police reported in Canada almost 39,000 incidents related to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in the year 2002 alone. Of these, two-thirds were for possession, 22% for trafficking and the remainder were offences involving importation. Clearly, the drug strategy has failed and this legislation would make it worse.
In 1992 to 2002, both British Columbia and Quebec accounted for 29% of drug related homicides, the highest proportions. They were followed by Ontario with 24%. Heroin and cocaine involvement were highest in British Columbia where about 58% of its homicides were heroin related.
I underline the fact that a gateway drug or drugs leading to the use of harder drugs often add to the phenomenon of violence. Whether it be home invasion, assaults or actual homicides related to drug activity, there is a clear linkage, a continuity. There is a string that attaches increased drug use to these other types of societal harm, these other types of serious offences against a person.
The bill seeks to increase the penalties in some instances and yet, in the same breath literally, fines are being dropped considerably, which undermines the principles of sentencing as they refer to deterrence and denunciation. Many on the Liberal-dominated committee were loathe to use the words deterrence and denunciation.
My colleague from Manitoba, a former attorney general and crown prosecutor, will tell us that these words are used daily by prosecuting attorneys, lawyers and judges alike, yet we somehow want to pretend that deterrence and denunciation are not proper considerations in the courts.
Implementing this drug strategy is supposed to discourage drug use, yet this very perverse mixed message is what results: the legalizing, or in essence decriminalizing, drugs and making them more readily available and more acceptable while at the same time telling the public that we will educate them more on why they should not use drugs. It is bizarre.
There are initiatives, certainly on the education side, that need to be embraced fully and implemented but there should be an effort to send the message through the sentencing provisions. Mandatory minimums were mentioned. Decriminalization sends a very poor message to young people in particular. The provisions of the new Youth Criminal Justice Act, or the YJCA as it is referred to in colloquial terms--and many in the criminal justice system are now basically saying that this acronym equates to You Can't Jail Anyone--are for diversionary purposes. In principle, I could not agree more, but what we are seeing is that the programming does not exist. In fact, those diversionary programs, those mythical ideals that we all embrace that are aimed at prevention and at keeping a young person from going down that road or further embarking on a life of crime, are not there.
There has been lengthy discussion that carrying small quantities of marijuana should not result in a criminal record. I have spoken to how the courts have been dealing with small amounts of marijuana for years. There is always as well the discretion of the police officer at the scene, who in many instances will simply seize the substance in question, take the kids home, give them a tongue lashing and alert their parents. This is the type of street justice in which many police officers are already engaging. It is already condoned and available under the Criminal Code provisions.
The people who implement and enforce our laws, the front line police, the Canadian Police Association, municipal police and RCMP officers everywhere, are shuddering at the passage of this bill, just as many are now waking up to the realization of the flawed gun registry and how they were sold a bill of goods to get their support in that first instance.
To top it off, this talk of a national drug strategy is really a myth. There is nothing to back up these words other than the fact that this is somehow in the works. Like so many other policies, there is very little substance behind those words.
We in the Conservative Party do not support the legislation. We feel that Canadians would be best served to review the drug policies with a mind to protecting citizens and educating them on the harms that flow from drug use in Canada today.
