Justice committee  I've spoken to police officers in Toronto, Durham, York Region, and across this country, and I hear exactly the same thing. They're frustrated with their inability to be able to provide some form of protection to the kids who follow the rules. We seem to provide all kinds of reso

Justice committee  Yes, I've seen it with Asian gangs in our city, exactly the same, exactly what you're saying. This is a very difficult, complex, social problem we're talking about, and it's probably one of the most misunderstood pieces of legislation in this country. But if we're here to discus

Justice committee  Absolutely.

Justice committee  Yes, that's a part of what needs to be done. We need more intervention. We need more support, such as the petition—and I hope everybody in this committee will have the opportunity to read something that I circulated 10 years ago. There's nothing dangerous, there's nothing Machiav

Justice committee  I'm not suggesting that what you're saying is incorrect, but why should we provide them with further anonymity by shrouding and hiding their names so that they can go into other communities and start additional gangs and recruit additional people to be involved in more and more c

Justice committee  I think I have to go back to my original stance, that my comments here are based on individuals who have committed the most extreme and abhorrent crimes in Canadian society. We are not suggesting, I never suggested, that an individual who has made a silly mistake, stolen a car or

Justice committee  Thank you. Again, I want to preface my response by suggesting that the first thing I said during this committee meeting was that my comments were for those who commit extreme violent acts and who take or destroy another human life. I believe that everybody makes mistakes, espec

Justice committee  Well, I'm going to answer your two questions. One, I don't believe that the bill is asking for longer sentencing. I've already stated earlier that adult sentencing may actually have shorter custodial times than sentencing under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Justice committee  I absolutely agree, and I understand the parameters very well. One thing I want to add about pretrial custody that I feel is very important for the members of this committee to understand is that the boys who hurt my son were not in any pretrial custody, and during that time the

Justice committee  To answer your question on adult sentencing, Mr. Comartin, one of the greatest misconceptions in this country is the fact that an individual under 18 who commits a serious crime, first- or second-degree murder, in an adult sentence will spend a great length of time in a custodial

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  If I can speak to that decrease, one of the things I recognize is that various government statistics have come out saying we've had a 35% decrease in the incarceration rate or in criminality among young people. Prior to the introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, under th

Justice committee  I'm sorry, I missed that point completely.

Justice committee  Seriously, in any community where an individual has committed the crime I've just explained, every kid within that school knows who it is; most of the people in those communities know who it is. The people who don't know, because of publication bans, are people in the rest of the

Justice committee  Absolutely not, not within his own community. I disagree with you for the reasons I've just stated. When that individual returns to that community, there isn't a child who doesn't know who he is and what he has done.