SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Sep/18/23 12:27:07 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-48

Mr. Speaker, I certainly wish to add my congratulations to the hon. member on his joining cabinet in his very critical position as Minister of Justice. I have also seen, as my colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke and others have said previously, nothing but really strong relationships and non-partisan and strong collaborative efforts from the member. I know that the public is very alarmed by people being released on bail who go on to commit violent crimes, but we know that the bill by itself could actually make things worse given the institutional biases and racism in our system of justice. Pretrial detention offers very little, and even less once people have received their sentences, in the way of mental health supports and the attention that would assist in keeping people off the streets to avoid recidivism. A balance will need to be struck that would not be struck by the bill alone. Because I know we want to see the bill passed quickly, and I think it is likely there will be an effort to get it passed today, I want to flag another concern that I hear from prosecuting attorneys: When people do get bail, and the surety is often a family member who puts up money for the accused's bail provisions, it is almost unheard of to go after the person who puts up the money to collect the money, so there is even less incentive for a person out on bail to observe their bail conditions. I wonder if the hon. Minister of Justice has turned his mind to this aspect of needed bail improvements and reforms.

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Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23

Mr. Xavier Barsalou-Duval (Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, BQ)

Sep/18/23 1:41:51 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-48

Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed my NDP colleague's speech, which seemed to go beyond partisanship. He certainly made an effort to rise above partisanship in his speech. In it, he mentioned that he thinks too many people will end up in pretrial detention, also known as remand. That would have a major impact on the lives of potentially innocent people, who would no longer be able to pay their mortgage, who would lose their job, and who would lose their relationship with their family and children. Nevertheless, one of the consequences of Bill C‑48 is that it would increase the number of people in pretrial detention. We think that this bill is worthwhile and that it should be studied because there are some criteria that are worthy of consideration. However, as our justice critic, the member for Rivière-du-Nord, said, the fact remains that the lack of judges is one of the main reasons for how slow our justice system operates. All of these people in pretrial detention are waiting for a trial, but they are not getting one and, in some cases, they are being remanded unfairly. Sometimes, the solution does not necessarily involve changing laws. The government opposite also needs to appoint judges. Does my NDP colleague agree with that?

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Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23

Mr. Randall Garrison

Sep/18/23 1:43:31 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-48

Mr. Speaker, I want to address something that the member said, which is that Bill C-48 would result in more people being in pretrial detention. Precisely because it allows the option of community-based bail supervision, the opposite would be the case. This bill would actually result in fewer people being detained before their trials. That is the important aspect that New Democrats argued for and convinced the government to include in this bill. If we are interested in public safety, as I said, yes, we need to deal with repeat violent offenders. We also need to deal with recidivism. The way one deals with recidivism is to keep people out of jail, keep them in their employment, keep them with their families and provide them the supports they need to be productive citizens in this country.

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Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Sep/18/23 1:48:55 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-48

Mr. Speaker, I did raise, with the minister, the same issue that my colleague has raised, which is the lack of services in pretrial detention. We should attend to that issue. I want to know if he has more clarity than I do on the position of the official opposition. I appreciate he is exhorting us not to be partisan, but I am frankly confused. I thought the hon. leader of the official opposition said publicly we need to get this bill passed as quickly as possible, but on a direct question from the Minister of Justice, he seemed to duck the answer. Does the hon. member for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke have more insight on whether we will have all-party collaboration today to get the bill passed today?

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Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23

Mr. Randall Garrison

Sep/18/23 1:49:40 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-48

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her concern about the lack of services in pretrial detention because it is a very important part of public safety. I am no expert on the internal workings of the Conservative Party, but it does seem peculiar when its leader, who has said that he was prepared to get this done in a day, no longer seems prepared to do that.

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Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23

Mr. Tako Van Popta (Langley—Aldergrove, CPC)

Sep/18/23 4:36:53 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-48

Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned the data, which says that 70% of incarcerated people in provincial jails are in pretrial detention. They have not even been tried or convicted yet. He says that in his opinion, this counters the false narrative that the Canadian judicial system is lenient. However, maybe it is evidence that our courts and Crown prosecutors are under-resourced. Accused people have the right to a speedy trial, and maybe people are just languishing in pretrial because our courts and Crown prosecutors are under-resourced.

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Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23

Mr. Randall Garrison

Sep/18/23 5:24:09 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-48

Madam Speaker, my question to the hon. member is about how we deal with repeat offenders. One of the proposals in the bill is to make the option of community-based bail supervision available in all cases for the judge to select. That means that people could get bail who would otherwise end up in detention before trial. What we really need is the commitment of resources from the federal government to get that program under way, because it is far cheaper than detaining people and has much better outcomes, in terms of public safety. Is the member prepared to commit the government to support community-based bail supervision?

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