Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, here we go again. This time, in Guelph, police warned the community that a high-risk offender with a history of violence and breaching court orders was released after pleading guilty to breaching probation. Police said he posed a danger, especially to women, and less than two hours later, he was arrested again. This is weak Liberal bail law in action. Once again, the Liberals' princip…
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Mr. Speaker, this dangerous release happened for only one reason. Liberal soft-on-crime laws are still on the books, and the government refuses to repeal them. Time after time, Liberal laws put repeat violent offenders back on the street, ignore police warnings and put Canadians in harm's way. Conservatives, on the other hand, are ready to work with anyone in the House to put public safety first a…
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Madam Speaker, I can answer the question very affirmatively. It is yes. Ideally, we want this bill to be split in order to focus in on those areas that have been long overdue for 10 years. Victims, law agencies and victim advocacy groups have all been asking for additional reforms to prioritize the needs of victims, to recalibrate the focus on bail and to take a look at community safety, while at …
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Madam Speaker, that is an important question. I am very hopeful that 2026 ushers in a positive change in the House of Commons. Today the Prime Minister and the government House leader gave press conferences setting out their purpose for the winter and spring session. They want to prioritize the quick passage of Bill C-14 and Bill C-16. We are currently debating that. In fact, it may have already b…
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Madam Speaker, I want to be very clear about something. Bill C-16 would make available the possibility that all the mandatory minimum penalties that were ruled unconstitutional by appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, get reopened. This would include the most recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in Senneville, which was on the possession of child sexual abuse material.…
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Madam Speaker, welcome back to the House. I welcome all of my friends on the other side, as well as my colleagues, and I wish every member of the House a very happy new year. I hope to have a really productive winter and spring session in the 45th Parliament. I start by reflecting on what Bill C-16 would and would not do. At the outset, I can state that the bill is largely supported by the Conserv…
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Madam Speaker, clearly, my colleague opposite did not listen to a word I had to say, because I indicated that the vast majority of the provisions that deal with trial delays and victims are going to be supportable by the Conservative Party of Canada. Where we differ, and I would beg to differ with her, is with respect to the position of law enforcement. They want meaningful sentences. They do not …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for that excellent question because it is important that legislation reflect not only the will of the public but also a rigorous debate in the House of Commons. My friend commented on the rising level of gun crime and the outrageous extortion numbers, particularly in British Columbia. I was out there recently, giving a press conference. I was shocked to learn th…
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps the minister should actually show up at the justice committee and see what his colleagues are doing. We showed up, ready to fix the Liberals' broken bail system, but after more than 17 attempts to prioritize Bill C-14, the answer from the Liberals is always no. It is clear the government is unwilling to take even modest steps toward keeping Canadians safe. Still, today, it con…
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Mr. Speaker, Conservatives asked the Liberals 17 times at the justice committee to start working on the bail bill. We moved 17 motions to get to bail, and 17 times the Liberals blocked it. They voted against our jail not bail act. They voted against our three strikes motion. Now they are blocking their own bill. At what point will the government stop voting against every single measure to finally …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals had multiple opportunities to crack down on violent repeat offenders. Instead, they chose religious censorship over public safety. The Liberal members for Burnaby Central, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, Mount Royal and even the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice must answer to Canadians as to why they keep obstructing the study of Bill C-14. They were given the c…
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Mr. Speaker, last night at the justice committee, Conservatives moved to immediately prioritize Bill C-14 and scrap dangerous Liberal bail laws. What did the Liberals do? Shamefully, they blocked us, not once, not twice, but three times. Now we just learned that they cancelled today's eight-hour meeting. Instead of stopping criminals, the Liberals are more concerned with prosecuting religious expr…
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Mr. Speaker, with the Liberals, why do the charter rights of pedophiles come before the charter rights of children? Shamefully, every single member of that party, including the Minister of Justice, remains silent. There are crickets. This ruling means pedophiles with hundreds of videos of children being sexually assaulted can escape mandatory jail. They cannot claim to stand for victims while they…
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Madam Speaker, every member of the chamber has seen the toll that addiction, trafficking and exploitation take on our communities. I have spoken with first responders who arrive at overdoses of the same people night after night. I have met with outreach workers stretched to the breaking point and with volunteers who keep showing up because no one else will. I want to begin by recognizing what the …
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Madam Speaker, a general theme running through the member's speech was offender accountability, and I think every member of the House appreciates that principle. However, I say to the member that if she were truly concerned about accountability, she would know that accountability also promotes meaningful consequences for individuals who prey on other humans in order to traffic them and for those i…
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Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Supreme Court struck down mandatory jail time for predators convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material. That decision is disgusting. These offenders were not caught with a few files; they had hundreds of images and videos of children as young as three being tortured and abused, yet instead of standing up for victims, the Liberal government stays silent. Why is …
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Madam Speaker, I will highlight how disappointing it was to hear the parliamentary secretary for justice being so partisan in her attacks. I thought we were getting along so well in the spirit of collaboration. Public and community safety are not a partisan issue. They never should be. Our goal is to make this bill as strong as possible, and her attacks were absolutely not appreciated. The title o…
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Madam Speaker, I have a question with respect to the bill and the clamping down on the availability of conditional sentences. In our respective view, this is a partial admission of the failures of the introduction of Bill C-5, which allowed for conditional sentences to be served for very serious offences. I recognize that Bill C-14 mentions sexual offences and sexual offences against children, but…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my colleague's response to the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader about trying to make this bill better. You said it best when you said the government has had six-plus years to get this right. The election is almost seven months removed. Why do you think the government left out such substantive pieces of reform, particularly in the area…
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Madam Speaker, I will ask my colleague to reflect on the issue of the principle of restraint. Obviously, it has not been abandoned in Bill C-14. There have been some attachments and limitations to its application. Why are provisions of the principle of restraint in jail not bail a better approach for the protection of Canadians?
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Madam Speaker, from my review of Bill C-14, I believe that there is a partial admission by the government that it failed and that it dropped the ball when it introduced Bill C-5. It actually rolled back some of the conditional sentences, so I want to spend a bit of time talking about that. Given that sex assault is on the rise across this country, why did the member's government see fit to claw ba…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague gave an excellent speech. He referenced Bailey McCourt, the tragic, preventable homicide that is still on the books in British Columbia, which was a result of a decision made by a judge to release after conviction pending sentence. Bill C-14 does not close that gap. What would the jail not bail act say in reference to that type of process?
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals blew nearly $1 billion on a gun grab that even their own minister admits does not work. He was caught on tape telling the truth: It is a waste of money. The OPP wants no part of it, and the chief of the only police force they found to enforce their vanity project is related to a Liberal MP. This is not safety; it is political theatre with a $750-million price tag. When wi…
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Madam Speaker, it is optimistic for the member to suggest that the bill could be passed by the end of the year. I am hoping, as we consider it as an opposition party, that my friend's party would also consider reasonable amendments to improve the bill. I said that it is good, but it is not the best, and it can be improved. My friend talks about a substantial bail reform package. I would disagree w…
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Madam Speaker, the bill is some 35 pages long. It would make 80 significant changes to the Criminal Code. In fact, the title of the bill is the bail and sentencing reform act. The question I will put to the minister is regarding sentencing. He spoke very generally about the consecutive sentence aspect of the bill. He spoke about the aggravated features of the bill for sentencing purposes, but he d…
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Madam Speaker, could the member repeat her last line? I did not quite catch it. There was some talking in the background and I could not hear it.
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Madam Speaker, my relationship with our current justice minister is vastly different from those with previous justice ministers. He is open to conversation. We have exchanged our personal cell numbers. I spoke about the bill with him this past weekend. He knows that we are going to be putting forth reasonable amendments. He has indicated a willingness to look at that. In fact, I am even going to s…
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Madam Speaker, before I start, I seek unanimous consent to split my time.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for that excellent question and his equally excellent suggestion. It is a particular issue that, for years, we have been advocating for. As I indicated in my speech, in 2019, the creation of the principle of restraint and the amendment to the code was the genesis of the problems we face today. It would be a very easy fix to simply repeal section 493.1, the princ…
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Cariboo—Prince George. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of the fine constituents of my riding, and it is significant for me as a former participant in the criminal justice system for almost two decades. This is an issue that I have been pushing for, and it is an issue for which I have been advocating f…
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Mr. Speaker, sex assault victims, whether they be military-based or civilian-based, have an absolute lack of trust in the Canadian legal system. There is significant under-reporting, and inconsistent investigative measures are taken. When a matter does get to court, there are Crown attorneys who either display an interest or a lack of interest. There is revictimization within the trial process its…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to pose the same question to the member that I did to one of his colleagues, because I did not get an answer. The reality is that sex assault victims, whether they be in civilian court or military court, have a complete lack of trust in the system. They call it a system; they do not call it a justice system. There is under-reporting and there are problems with investigation…
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Mr. Speaker, Liberal bail laws have unleashed a bloodbath of violent crime across the country. Bill C-75, the catch-and-release Liberal bail law, is the problem. The Prime Minister has kept Liberal bail in place, causing more bloodshed over his last six months. Conservatives listened to police and victims and drafted a bill to end Liberal bail and restore city streets. The vote is today. Victims a…
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Mr. Speaker, let us look at some examples of government inaction. In Vancouver, police had to arrest the same 40 offenders 6,000 times in one year. In Peel, police arrested 18 suspects for home invasions and carjackings, and half are already released on bail. In Saskatchewan, Myles Sanderson was out on release after 59 convictions when he murdered 11 people. Premiers, police chiefs, mayors and vic…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my friend as he is one of the few Conservative MPs in the Brampton area. The majority of those ridings are dominated by Liberal MPs. My question to the member is simple: What is the community of Brampton saying about the weak, soft-on-crime agenda of the Liberal government?
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps my friend did not hear me as clearly as I wanted her to hear me. Law enforcement has been pleading with the government for the last four years. They have had regular meetings here in Ottawa and in many parts of this country. They came here to Ottawa for a one-day summit, a one-day summit producing Bill C-48, which added reverse onus provisions to a number of firearm offences, …
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Mr. Speaker, I absolutely believe in democracy. I absolutely believe in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the charter, we have two fundamental rights that apply to bail matters: the right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise, and the right to reasonable bail. This is bail, not sentencing. Reasonable bail does not mean absolute bail, and that is the consequence, literally, o…
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Mr. Speaker, absolutely, the bill would see immediate changes to the safety quotient across the country. There would be a rebalancing of our criminal justice system, where the rights of the accused are balanced with community safety and victim safety. Those repeat violent offenders would find it exceedingly difficult, although not impossible, to obtain bail.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure what the question was.
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Mr. Speaker, Liberal laws have unleashed crime and chaos on our streets, and it is no wonder: Bill C-75 requires courts to release repeat violent offenders at the earliest opportunity with the least restrictive conditions. The results are devastating. In Markham alone, a criminal out on bail for attempted murder shot a man in a home invasion. The Liberals promise bail reform, but it is just anothe…
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Mr. Speaker, it has been a long six months since the Prime Minister promised bail reform, and nothing has happened. Instead, the Liberals are obstructing the Conservative jail not bail act from passing, keeping soft-on-crime catch-and-release laws on the books. Since the Liberals took office, violent crime is up 55%, sex assaults are up 76% and gun crime has soared by a staggering 130%. Enough is …
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the great citizens of Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations. It is particularly poignant for me given today's topic and given my prior history in the criminal justice system. I dare say that one of the driving forces for me to leave behind, at that point, almost 28 years in criminal justice to become a legislator was that I saw first-hand, dail…
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Mr. Speaker, the government misled Canadians into believing that it was simply codifying language from the Supreme Court of Canada. The decision the Liberals were referring to was Antic, which basically reiterated the principles under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that apply to people who are factually innocent, although charged with a serious crime. Justin Trudeau and his ministers said they…
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Madam Speaker, nothing is off the table.
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Madam Speaker, I have several responses. I want to highlight again that obtaining Attorney General consent is not a cumbersome process. There are a number of potential prosecutions and offences currently in the Criminal Code that already require Attorney General consent, so I can lay to rest the issue that it is too time-consuming and would delay a potential prosecution, because it is not reality.…
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Madam Speaker, I find Justin Trudeau's comments in this House and outside this House with respect to the burning down of Christian churches to be absolutely repulsive. It was a disgusting statement by the head of a G7 country, and in my view, it is emblematic of how this government has vilified Christianity in the House of Commons. Every time a church was burned, we would bring it up in the House …
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Madam Speaker, I am going to ask my hon. colleague to reflect on the question that was put to me by the Secretary of State for Combatting Crime, that the police services that she has spoken to welcome the removal of Attorney General consent. I would like to know, from the perspective of my colleague, what his impression is in terms of enforcement generally with respect to the existing hate legisla…
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Mr. Speaker, we have heard from several speakers from the government side that Jewish groups are absolutely supportive and in favour of the full content of Bill C-9. I would like to find out this from my colleague: As a proud Jewish resident in his community, has he heard from any other Jewish groups that offer a different view?
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Mr. Speaker, as a lawyer and a former adjudicator, I would like to hear my colleague's opinion on the differing standards of proof. We have the extreme vilification versus the lower standard in Bill C-9. Knowing that our courts are overburdened with cases right now, with Jordan delays being commonplace across Canada, does she feel this confusing threshold will increase the amount of litigation in …
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Madam Speaker, the member's speech was excellent. The symbolism section in Bill C-9 specifically prohibits the wilful public display of the Nazi swastika. There are over one million Hindu Canadians in this country, and part of the symbolism associated with that culture and faith is a symbol that closely resembles the swastika.
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