Mr. Speaker, I thank my eminent colleague from Chambly—Borduas for agreeing to split his time with me for speaking on this very important bill.
Yes, this bill is important, but it would be frightening if it were passed. This act to amend the Criminal Code (conditional sentence of imprisonment) gives us a glimpse of the true face of this government. Since the election on January 23, all sorts of accusations have been made about the government’s propensity for modeling its policies on those of George W. Bush. My colleague from Brome—Missisquoi brought this up a few moments ago. This is disturbing.
The true face of the Conservatives will become increasingly clear, and not only in justice matters. They are moving increasingly to the right, and they are copying the policies of George W. Bush. I know this is not necessarily being received with pleasure, but that is precisely what this sort of bill is doing. This is happening not only in justice, but also in the environment, where the example is quite convincing indeed. They cannot say that scrapping the Kyoto protocol was a “made in Canada” policy when Quebec, the other provinces and even previous governments have always made the environment a priority, even if they did not always do so effectively. At least we supported the Kyoto protocol, we submitted a plan. The Conservatives are in the process of setting all of this aside. It is the same thing with employment insurance. I could go down the list, but I prefer to spend my time talking about Bill C-9.
The people of Quebec are increasingly worried about the values being promoted by this government. In the present case, these values are modeled on those of the United States, as I have said. In the United States, they have built prisons, they have increased the severity as well as the length of sentences. Is the crime rate lower in the United States than in Canada? The answer is no. My colleague from Chambly—Borduas gave an eloquent demonstration of that just now.
Our criminologists, who are as good as those of other countries, have long agreed that harsher sentences do not reduce the number of offences. In Bill C-9, the approach of the Minister of Justice is illogical because it is not aiming at the right target. Here is what we could have done to be constructive and help lower the crime rate in this country: the government should have corrected the quasi-automatic nature of parole. All releases should be tied to merit, instead of taking place virtually automatically once the criminal has served one sixth of the sentence. I do not understand why the government has not considered this issue, instead of imposing on judges the sentences they have to give.
Instead of that, the minister preferred to restrict judges' discretionary powers. Thanks to Bill C-9, judges will no longer be able, in nearly all circumstances, to allow offenders to carry out their sentences in the community—a practice that has existed since 1996—even when they have committed a minor offence involving no violence and accompanied by mitigating circumstances. It can happen, even though all crimes must be punished. There must be agreement on this. No one is saying that what happens is not serious.
We can count on our judges, I believe. No doubt we can find examples of decisions that were perhaps not the best or the most convincing, but, generally speaking, we must trust in our judges and our legal system. It has served us very well, we have to admit, particularly if we compare it with that of our neighbours to the south. A distinction must be made between a dangerous repeat offender and a first time offender.
It has been said in this House that a judge had the responsibility of examining the evidence adduced and deciding, based on the circumstances, whether an individual could serve his sentence in the community. This does not mean that the person is released, returns home and continues to offend. The criteria are very strict. A person who reoffends or fails to meet the conditions very often receives a much harsher sentence than they would have had had they not been given a conditional sentence.
The minister decided to back up ten years, when conditional sentences did not exist. The Bloc Québécois supported the establishment of such sentences in 1996 because it felt that every crime is different and must be evaluated accordingly. The government has therefore decided to take away judges' prerogative of evaluating the cases according to the conditions and circumstances surrounding them. A number of criteria come into play in the determination of a sentence, such as the seriousness of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender. With Bill C-9, the government withdraws this discretionary power, which must be available to a judge throughout a case.
Conditional sentences are part of a well accepted model of justice in Quebec and in the other provinces in general. It is based on a process customized to each case. This is particularly true in Quebec. Here in the House we had a big battle in connection with the Young Offenders Act. At that time, the Liberals let themselves be pushed towards the right by the Reform Party in its bid for increasingly tough legislation. At the very moment when this tougher law was being imposed in Quebec, however, the rate of rehabilitation among young offenders was at 82%. This way of doing things, this toughened approach, was never understood in Quebec, when the approach to follow was in a way to open wide the doors to the rehabilitation of young offenders.
The government wants to take away the possibility of giving an individual a sentence to be served in the community if this person does not represent a threat to the safety of the public. That is what Bill C-9 does. We are talking about prison sentences of less than two years, are we not? If we introduced conditional sentences, it is because we believe in rehabilitation, as I said earlier, and restorative justice.
The Minister of Justice chose the approach of imprisonment at all costs and repression. We heard this earlier from the very mouth of a Conservative member, who was talking about law and order. Obviously, we are not against law and order, but at all costs and the way in which they want to impose it on us, it is not the right approach. That is the priority of this government concerning rehabilitation. It is not the priority of either Quebec or the other provinces. This law and order must not be achieved to the detriment of the necessary rehabilitation. Have we forgotten that the prisons are schools of crime? That has been said here many times. A first time offender who goes to prison has every chance, or rather mischance, of ending up with someone who can teach them a great deal about how to improve their criminal potential. This is obviously not what is desired when we talk about rehabilitation.
Do the government members really think that building bigger prisons and filling them even fuller are the ultimate solutions for dealing with crime? The example of the U.S.—that was also mentioned—however, is very conclusive in this regard.
The direct impact of Bill C-9 will be an increase in the number of inmates in the prisons of Quebec and the provinces housing offenders serving sentences of two years less a day. These prisons are already full. Some are overcrowded. This will allow the Conservative government to keep another promise, that of building new prisons perhaps. I do not think this is a good move for rehabilitation and I do not think this is the type of promise the public was expecting. The Department of Justice itself estimates there will be an additional 5,000 prisoners, offenders who normally would have received community sentences and who will now be sent to prison.
Financially speaking, I am not sure they have truly looked at the cost of implementing Bill C-9. The current average annual cost per inmate in a provincial prison is more than $50,000. That is the cost per year. The average annual cost for an offender serving a sentence in the community is less than $2,000. That is a big difference. The government jumped into drafting this bill without even comparing or assessing the financial burden it will have on Quebec and the provinces. And the Conservative government brags about saving taxpayers' money. But no money was saved when it drafted this bill.
The Bloc Québécois could have supported a bill that would have prevented the use of conditional sentences for the most violent crimes that are not excluded by the current legislation. Victims deserve justice, but very few of these crimes are not covered by the current legislation. The Criminal Code could have been amended; that approach could have been considered.
I will close by saying that we are asking the government to take action with respect to parole. We support the creation of a victim's ombudsman office that could react to and counterbalance the powerful National Parole Board and Correctional Service Canada. The priority should be to force these agencies to take the victims into account. Bill C-9 is a rather repressive measure and an ineffective one. We will vote against it.
