Justice committee  I believe the individual should be.... Again, I premised my arguments and my position here before I started by saying that I'm talking about killers, psychopaths, rapists, pedophiles, and the worst--

Justice committee  You may suggest that we are, and Juristat may suggest that crime rates are coming down, but crime victimization surveys are showing that crime among young people has doubled in the last ten years. We are one of the safest countries in the world. I love my country; I think it is o

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  In my presentation I'm talking about children who are under the age of 18, the victims of victimizers who are under the age of 18, yes.

Justice committee  No, no, the school is part of it; school is only part of their lives. When they leave school, when the clock strikes three or four o'clock, their lives are still not free of intimidation. They have difficulties after that, anywhere in the community.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  Intimidation?

Justice committee  No--physical assault, being beaten into a coma. We have visited hospitals across this country where children do not make the front pages of our newspapers, but they are still lying in vegetative states after five and six years of violent physical assaults as a result of violent c

Justice committee  One of the things that I think is an extreme shortcoming of the existing Youth Criminal Justice Act is the fact that there is no provision for mandatory counselling. If we really want to see violent people, who are placed within the system after they have been convicted of commit

Justice committee  It's not in the new bill either. I'm also suggesting other things that should be included in this new legislation. In my meeting in Toronto, many things were recommended.

Justice committee  That's correct, but rehabilitation will not happen on the streets of the city.

Justice committee  I agree with you, yes, but I also want to suggest to you or state to you that the concept of deterrence and denunciation should not be overlooked and should not be underestimated. The school children we've talked to...there are several instances in my own community where a young

Justice committee  I have one last thing. I have a lot more to say, but I urge, I implore, this committee not to exercise political partisanship, but to listen to what I have said and to support this legislation. Thank you.

Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members of this committee. I am a father of a young boy who was almost beaten to death by young offenders in 1999. I'm a father who recognized a system that needs change—change for both sides of what we now see is the end result of v