Justice committee  I want to piggy-back on what Marshall said about the recruitment of youth in criminal activity down here. There could be a few steps made by government that would counteract this right away: first of all, if labour laws were changed so that people could obtain employment at a younger age; second, if the minimum wage were increased.

Justice committee  Once again, I just want to echo the sentiment. It does curb and make the community feel more secure. It does, yes. But certainly, in terms of illegal activity, as my colleague Kenny said, it doesn't really deter or prevent it. It just makes those who engage in that criminal activity think harder about ways they can carry out their task or carry out what it is that they do, whatever they do, in order not to get caught.

Justice committee  No. I'd say no. There are still people trafficking narcotics on these streets. There are still people looking on these streets for narcotics. So like I said, it's just.... You see the police there, so you're just more conscious or more cognizant of what's going on around you. But you're still going to make that delivery to that person, or that person is still going to go find what they want to find.

Justice committee  No. Prison is the thing I would say a lot of government has a misconception about. Prison doesn't really affect our decisions, because it's the situation that we're in presently that makes us consider or engage in such criminal activities. So if I'm hungry or there's not a lot of money and/or food in my household and if I go and get a job and work 40 hours a week for minimum wage and when I get paid, there's still no money or food in my household, I'm not really concerned that if I engage in criminal activity there's a possibility I might go to prison.

Justice committee  I only wanted to say that in this region of Canada, we don't necessarily have gangs, but we do have crime, and I would say it would be organized crime, and a lot of youth are engaged in that. The reason why I wouldn't necessarily say they are gangs is because we don't have the numbers that a major metropolitan area such as Vancouver or Toronto or Montreal would have.