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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 152

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 2, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 152 - Feb/2/23
Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)
  • Feb/2/23 12:01:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. This morning we are again seized with some sort of motion addressing one of my Conservative friends' favourite topics, namely law and order and justice. This morning, my colleague and other members spoke about the fact that it is also important to proactively address poverty indicators, including housing, mental health and addiction. How would all the investments that the government could make impact the number of people who get arrested and the time they spend in jail?
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Context: House Hansard - 152 - Feb/2/23
Mr. Randall Garrison
  • Feb/2/23 12:03:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is an interesting question. It is outside the scope of the Conservative motion, but it is important. However, I would back up a step and ask us to look at why people fail to meet their bail conditions. Seriously, most of the time it is because people have mental health, addiction and poverty problems. I cited the example in my speech of someone with a mental health problem who needed their supervisor on bail to actually contact them regularly to get them to those meetings. It was not because they were evil or deliberately breaking bail conditions; it was because their grasp on reality was sufficiently disturbed that they simply could not get it together to make those meetings. Oftentimes we also do things like say someone cannot go to an area of town. We would have a red zone, and part of one's bail conditions would be that one does not go there. It is unrealistic to ask somebody without a fixed address, when maybe all their friends and associates hang out on the streets in those areas, never to have contact with their support networks in their communities. As such, before we ask about that, I think we need to ask whether those are reasonable conditions and why people are breaking those conditions.
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Context: House Hansard - 152 - Feb/2/23
Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ)
  • Feb/2/23 2:55:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in Montreal, there are now 73% more people on social assistance than there were a year ago. This is not because of a job shortage, but because of Roxham Road. The federal government has invited asylum seekers to enter by Roxham Road. Once they are on Canadian soil, it cannot issue a work permit for them. That takes almost one year. The federal government plunges them into poverty and they are then forced to go on social assistance. This costs Quebec an additional $20 million every month. Will the government pick up the tab? It is responsible for this situation.
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