Justice committee  In my view, none of these things--publishing the name, adding denunciation and deterrence, providing for more pre-sentence detention of youth, and most of the amendments that are proposed--will do anything to address or to change the impulsive, irrational, often reckless behaviou

Justice committee  I think it's contradictory with the existing legislation; it's a totally different approach. I think we're going backwards, back to the “young offenders” approach, which allowed us to have an extremely high incarceration rate of youth as compared with other advanced, civilized, d

Justice committee  I think it's really going in the wrong direction, and I don't think it's the purpose of a youth criminal justice act. Within the existing legislation there are ways to address the concern of public safety. I think one of the members said that there is considerable flexibility for

Justice committee  The approach is multidisciplinary. Obviously, you first have to target the youths who have mental health disorders or acute behavioural disorders and direct them to services and treatment rather than proceed with their incarceration. I'm told it works.

Justice committee  It must be understood that the same services don't exist at the same level in Canada. For example, in New Brunswick—I'm quite familiar with the situation in my province—there is a psychiatric hospital in Campbellton. There's also a psychiatric unit for young persons in Moncton, b

Justice committee  I think that the act, as it currently stands, would be more effective if there were screening services. First, it would be necessary to target the youths who have these specific needs. Then there would have to be effective ways of intervening in terms of treatment for those youth

Justice committee  In fact, judges often don't have a lot of options because, in certain regions of Canada and in certain provinces, the services simply do not exist. The act obviously allows considerable flexibility. I think that's the entire advantage of this act. It provides very significant ben

Justice committee  I wouldn't describe her as that. She was a very, very troubled youth--

Justice committee  Most of her violent behaviour was inside the prison.

Justice committee  If we don't address the real problems, the lack of mental health and--

Justice committee  I don't.... Would you say...?

Justice committee  It's hard for me to answer that, but certainly--

Justice committee  I can't say yes or no.

Justice committee  Not the specific provisions--

Justice committee  The problem with Ashley's case is that there was an absence of mental health services, and I think that--