SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 221 - Sep/20/23

Sep/20/23 4:27:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke for his contribution today and his contributions over many years at the justice committee. The member is highlighting an important situation. Obviously I cannot comment on a particular case or a particular prosecution, but I think it underscores the points that I was making in my opening remarks. When individuals make an autonomous decision that they want to speak about what has happened to them, we need to enable and empower them to speak about their trauma and not retraumatize them thereby. That is what this bill tries to do. The bill has two components. The critical component is maintaining a registry that would keep people safe from sexual violence. When sexual offences occur, we have to be focused on the victims and empowering them so that they do not face the type of situation that the member just outlined. That is not a situation we want to replicate. What we want to do instead is empower people to have control of their situation, their own healing and their own path.

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Context: House Hansard - 221 - Sep/20/23

Ms. Raquel Dancho

Sep/20/23 4:46:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have wondered the same thing. Why did the government take so long to table this bill? I wanted an answer from the Minister of Justice but I did not get one. Now, the government is telling everyone that we have to get a move on, when it was the one dragging its feet. It is telling us that we need to do all the work. I want this bill to be outstanding, and we want it to take a strict approach to sex offenders. A lot of work needs to get done. I want the minister to explain why everything is taking so long.

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Context: House Hansard - 221 - Sep/20/23

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

Sep/20/23 5:25:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Rivière‑du‑Nord for his work at the Standing Committee on Justice and for the speech he delivered today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been trying to get in, as you know, to ask a question since the minister spoke, so I will speak very quickly. It may be my only occasion to say that the Green Party will be supporting Bill S-12. My only concern is that I really want to make sure we do the proper consultations. When I last spoke to members of My Voice, My Choice, they had concerns and wanted to see some amendments. Since my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord also talked about the challenges faced by victims of sexual offences who were not aware that they were banned from disclosing information, I just want to say to him that it is really odd for the system to punish them for talking about their situation and themselves. That is not fair. I am hoping that my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord is also going to be eagle-eyed when we get to the justice committee so that this bill adequately solves the problems facing victims of sexual violence, who are then under a publication ban without their permission.

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Context: House Hansard - 221 - Sep/20/23

Mr. Rhéal Éloi Fortin

Sep/20/23 5:29:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I have also worked with him on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and have always appreciated his interventions. We do not always share the same point of view, but there is always respect there, and that is very helpful. That said, to answer his question, I have to say that I do not understand either. My answer to these groups is that there are really only two ways to interpret this way of doing things. It may be that the government considers that the national sex offender registry is not important, as was the case the day before yesterday with Bill C-48, when the bail provisions did not seem important. Indeed, that is how it is with many other bills: just not important. Since it is not important, bills keep getting pushed back and dealt with when it suits them. If it never suits them, it is no big deal. If it is not because the subject is not important, then it is because the procedural rules are not important. They think the opposition members are not that bright. They know the opposition will say yes to anything, so, at the eleventh hour, they tell us the bill has to be passed. Then the opposition says, oh, the national sex offender registry is so important that we have to set aside the House's procedural rules. That is what the government hopes. Let us call that option B. Here is my question for the government. Is it A, the government does not give a fig, or is it B, the government does not give a fig about parliamentary rules?

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Context: House Hansard - 221 - Sep/20/23

Mr. Randall Garrison

Sep/20/23 5:43:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, here is the important message that I think we got from My Voice, My Choice: It is up to the victims to make the decision about whether they wish to have the publication ban. It is not really up to me, the prosecutors or the judges to make that decision for them. Yes, I share concerns about the way victims of crime are still treated in the courts, particularly victims of sexual assault. However, sexual assault is the one area where we take away that agency and say that they are not allowed to talk publicly about what happened to them. That is the message we received quite clearly in the justice committee from My Voice, My Choice. It is to give that agency to the victims, to let them make that decision for themselves.

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