Randall Garrison

[Human Rights, May 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, my question is about government support for diversity.

Today, MPs on this side of the House welcome Jer's Vision and a group of LGBTQ youth to Rainbow Day on the Hill. This day represents an opportunity to start breaking down the barriers that prevent LGBTQ youth from participating in politics. At the same time, it provides an opportunity for us to celebrate diversity on the Hill.

Let us show that we all value inclusiveness in the House and that we can unite despite our partisan differences.

Will the government now join us in a round of applause in appreciation of all those who participated in Rainbow Day on the Hill this year?

[Corrections and Conditional Release Act, May 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak today in support of the member for Oxford's private member's bill, Bill C-482. On this side of the House, we share the concern of all Canadians for the victims of crime and we support initiatives that will help to better support those victims within the legal process, which for victims can often be bewildering and often forces them, on a repeated basis, to relive the emotional impacts of victimization. Therefore, anything we can do to make that legal process easier for victims, while allowing them to have that input, is certainly something worthy of support.

However, on this side of the House, we are also concerned about assistance to victims of crime in helping put their lives back together. We have some concerns that the private members' bills that have come forward, and even the government's victims bill of rights, neglect that part of treating victims fairly, that assistance to them in getting counselling or whatever else they need to get back to whatever they can of their previous life.

Some of this is in provincial jurisdiction, but I am concerned that most provinces have severely underfunded their victims' compensation funds and in some of the provinces, including all the provinces in the Atlantic, these funds have actually been eliminated. Examples of assistance that people might need, let us say if they had a loved one murdered who was the sole breadwinner, are job training to get back into the workforce or those kinds of assistance that we often forget about in focusing on the legal process, which is important. However. there is another side to this.

On this side of the House, we are also concerned that we take measures to ensure we do not create new victims, and that means both effective crime prevention and rehabilitation programs.

We understand the concern that many victims have about escorted temporary absences. We know that to many of them it feels like some kind of early release or privilege to which the perpetrators are not entitled. Therefore, helping victims better understand the process and participate in that is a worthy objective.

We clearly understand the need to prevent surprise encounters. We have had too many instances where families have not known that someone is actually out on escorted temporary absences and they might run into them in the community, which is a great shock to them. I know Correctional Services Canada endeavours to ensure that this does not happen. This bill would actually strengthen the requirements to give notice to victims of those temporary absences.

There is another concern about escorted temporary absences, which I raised just a moment ago in the question for the member for Oxford; that is the safety of those absences both for the public and for the Correctional Service employees of those who are serving sentences for the most serious crimes.

At committee, we urged the government to place in legislation the requirement that those first escorted temporary absences for those serving sentences for murder be accompanied by two fully trained Correctional Service employees, not just one employee. The most serious problems we have had with escorted temporary absences have always been on early escorted absences for those convicted of murder.

Recently in 2011 in Drumheller, we unfortunately had an incident where a convicted murderer was being escorted by a single corrections staff in a non-secured vehicle. The person escaped and took hostages. This creates both a threat to the public and to the corrections staff involved. We were disappointed that the government was not interested in accepting this additional improvement to legislation.

We did support the bill at second reading, but we had some concerns about the original version of the bill. As I said before, I was pleased that the member for Oxford and the government side were prepared to accept a compromise version of the bill that we had suggested. In its main provisions, the bill is substantially different, although not different in principle, than what was originally introduced.

The member for Oxford talked about the current provision for those convicted of serious crimes in which the warden would become the granting authority for escorted temporary absences in the three years immediately prior to parole. The bill would now create a workable situation where the Parole Board would still have the first authority to decide on escorted temporary absences.

If the bill had remained as in its first version, we were concerned that the Parole Board would conduct all hearings into escorted temporary absences and, frankly, that was not workable. That would have required, in the estimates of officials, an additional 900 hearings at the Parole Board every year, placing a large burden upon the Parole Board and also placing a very large burden upon victims who would have had to submit impact statements at each of those additional 900 hearings.

The compromise that has been adopted will have the Parole Board make that initial decision before escorted temporary absences are granted. Then, if there are no problems, additional escorted temporary absences can be granted by the warden. We think that is quite workable and it guarantees a role in that initial decision for victims.

The other provision is that if people fail in their escorted temporary absences, and it does not have to be a hostage taking, then it would go back to the Parole Board, not just to the warden, for a decision on whether they should be granted future escorted temporary absences. Again, on this side, we think that is a reasonable provision. It will also allow victims to have a say at that time. If people had done something which violated the terms of their temporary absence, then the victims would get to talk about that and make their opinions known.

Again, the compromise is important, both in protecting the rights of victims to have input and in not interfering with the role of escorted temporary absences as part of a rehabilitation program. When we stop to think about it, escorted temporary absences are the first step on that road to recovery for many of those who have been convicted of serious crimes and it is a way of testing whether they are ready to go out into the public. Therefore, is important that they be under supervision the first time they are released.

The second part to rehabilitation is that escorted temporary absences create an incentive to complete rehabilitation programs, an incentive to move along through the correctional plan so when those people return to the community, they are not the same as they were when they originally committed those serious crimes. In ensuring that ETAs still play a role in rehabilitation, we will help to guarantee there will not be future victims by the same perpetrators.

I want to stress that we support Bill C-483 in its compromised version. We thank the government for being willing to consider our ideas on this and adopt that compromise. We look forward to having a further debate on how we can have effective crime prevention and rehabilitation programs to prevent their being future victims. When we get to the government's bill on victims' rights, we look forward to talking about how we can provide additional supports, not just rights, to those families that have been victims of serious crime.

[Corrections and Conditional Release Act, May 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Oxford for bringing this bill forward and for the compromises that were made in committee, which creates a situation that would both protect the rights of victims and is also workable for the Parole Board and the parole system.

My question for the member is this. New Democrats had proposed an amendment in committee that on the first escorted temporary absence from prison, those convicted of murder should be accompanied by two correctional staff. The current regulation says that they can be accompanied by anyone and it only needs to be a single person. Given the serious incidents we have had with those convicted of murder on their first escorted temporary absence, we suggested the requirement that the convict be accompanied by two Correctional Service employees for the first escorted temporary absences.

Since the government voted against that motion in committee, I wonder what the member would think about that as an addition to this bill and why the government did not support it.

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, what the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has been telling us in the House is that he is proud of the Conservative record on refugee health, even though admissions to hospital of refugee children have doubled since the Conservatives denied them health care coverage. They are telling us they do not care about these refugee children because to them they are simply visitors. Well, to us they are kids in need of care.

What is the minister's plan? Will he simply wait for the admission rate to double again? Will he continue to blame the provinces? Will he continue to treat these refugee kids as visitors?

[International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, May 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize tomorrow, May 17, as the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.

On this day we must stand together to speak out against hatred and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender-variant people. There is still an urgent need to combat homophobia and transphobia here at home and around the world.

In Canada, transgender and gender-varied Canadians are still without equal rights and protections, as Bill C-279 remains stuck in the Senate after passing the House of Commons, for a second time, more than a year ago.

We have also seen a disturbing trend of countries making homosexuality illegal or subject to harsh penalties. LGBTQ people in countries including Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Russia, and Jamaica are facing lengthy prison sentences, violence, and even death because of whom they love.

Today I call upon all members of Parliament to take concrete action to work towards eliminating homophobia and transphobia.

I call upon the government to stand up for Canadian values of equality and respect.

I call upon the Senate to awaken from its slumber on human rights and pass Bill C-279 now, in order to ensure equal rights of trans Canadians.

[Foreign Affairs, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Uganda recently imposed harsh criminal sanctions on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Now a cabinet minister has just threatened to shut down all HIV-AIDS education and support work in Uganda, alleging that it is just a cover for promoting homosexuality. This will only exacerbate the regional HIV-AIDS crisis. It is past time for concrete action to oppose the persecution of LGBT Ugandans.

Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs immediately impose targeted sanctions and a visa ban against minister Simon Lokodo and other Ugandan officials who continue to promote hatred against their citizens?

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it strikes me that the member for Peace River is a little like a person who puts one foot on each side of a picket fence and then tries to walk. He is a member of a government that has cut back severely on the CBC, and in his speech he said that the CBC should rely more on its own resources. Ultimately, this forces the CBC toward market solutions, which actually take away from what he was saying in the other part of his speech, which is that there is a mandate to serve the regions.

I come from Vancouver Island. It took us 20 years to get a CBC radio station on Vancouver Island. It is now the most listened to station there, and it feeds the national network.

I have sympathy with the member as a regional representative, but his government is doing exactly the opposite of the things he would like to accomplish in his own riding. I would like to know whether his position is comfortable or not.

[Public Safety, May 14th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, according to a report from Global News, public servants are being forced to decide in a matter of minutes whether someone getting on a plane is a security risk even though they are already on the no-fly list.

Incredibly, if someone on the no-fly list shows up at an airport, the airline then has to contact Transport Canada, and a government official then makes a last-minute decision on whether or not to let that person board the plane.

This is not a good way to keep Canadians safe. Can the minister tell us when the no-fly list became the maybe-fly list?

[Public Safety, May 8th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the minister is not entitled to his own facts here. He is the one who approved the third season of the reality TV show that recklessly exploits immigration raids. He did this against the recommendation of CBSA president Luc Portelance, who cited costs and the need for CBSA to focus on its real priority, keeping Canadians safe, and not on having to worry about filming reality TV programs.

Will the minister finally employ some common sense, listen to his officials at CBSA, and put a stop to this reckless and wasteful PR stunt?

[Correctional Service of Canada, May 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, report after report continues to pile up, documenting how the Conservative approach to prisons is making them increasingly unsafe and ineffective at rehabilitation, yet another example of Conservative mismanagement. Half our prisons are at or over capacity and the Auditor General has found this will still be true when the Conservatives finish their current construction plan.

Ashley Smith died in custody because the correctional system was so overcrowded and mismanaged it could not help her. When will the minister come up with an effective plan to deal with the emerging crisis in our prisons?