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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 316

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 23, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Mr. James Maloney
  • May/23/24 7:31:42 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I will get back to this later, but perhaps the minister could briefly touch upon, and reinforce, the changes that were made by the government to the appointment process that have enhanced the quality of the bench.
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 7:32:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the changes that have been made reflect a comprehensive questionnaire that looks at the lived experience of the individuals. We have put an emphasis on women, bilingualism and diversity. That has resulted in a level of appointments where 54% are women, and there have been 730 appointments so far. The previous government's track record was 30%.
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Mr. Alistair MacGregor
Madam Chair, members from all sides of the House have supported the creation of a new offence in the Criminal Code for coercive and controlling behaviour. Bill C-332 is scheduled to return to the House for report stage and third reading next week. Can the minister tell me when the government will act and implement the changes to the Criminal Code that are urgently needed to protect survivors, families and children who are at risk of coercive and controlling behaviour and escalating threats of harm and violence? Is the government committed to fast-tracking the implementation of the legislation, given the all-party support?
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:21:26 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the legislative changes we are making target those who use violence. This member has already said that he opposes changing the penalty for people who use violence—
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:25:45 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the important piece about bail is ensuring that we are making bail changes to ensure that serious violent repeat offenders—
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:49:02 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-63 
Madam Chair, I would say that we can start by moving with pace on Bill C-63. It talks about the fact that hate crimes are up 130% over the last five years in this country. We know that the hatred people are exposed to online has real-world consequences. Look no further than the trials of the individuals who were killed at the Quebec City mosque and the trials of the Afzaal family, who were killed in London, Ontario. How do we cure this? We take a Supreme Court definition of hatred and entrench it in law. That is something that law enforcement has asked us for. Again, I hope the members opposite are listening. Law enforcement and police officers have asked us for these changes because they want to facilitate the work of their hate crimes units in identifying what is happening and laying charges for what is happening. By enhancing penalties under the Criminal Code, by entrenching a definition of hatred in the Canadian Human Rights Act that facilitates discrimination complaints for online hate speech and by ensuring that we are having this content addressed by social media platforms, we can address this at multiple angles. This is critical toward keeping people safe, now more than ever, when hatred is on the rise, whether it is the anti-Semitism the member just spoke about, whether it is the Islamophobia we have seen with such fatal consequences, whether it is attacks towards the LGBTQ2 community or whether it is attacks against indigenous people in the Prairies. This is rife right now. The time to act is now, not at some future date, to keep Canadians safe. This must to be a priority for every parliamentarian here. Does that mean that we have the perfect bill? Absolutely, it does not mean that. I am open to amendments. We need to get this bill to the justice committee so that we can hear from experts about how a good bill can be strengthened further.
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC)
  • May/23/24 10:39:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there has been so much misinformation from the Minister of Justice, so I am going to try one last time to get some clarity around some key points. The NDP-Liberal government made a conscious decision to not just make it easier but actually force judges to grant bail for dangerous and repeat offenders. That was in their bill, Bill C-75. Since those changes in the government's bill, has the overall crime rate in Canada gone up or down?
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Andrew Scheer
  • May/23/24 10:40:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will get to auto theft in a moment, but first I want to just clarify: Bill C-75 made specific changes to make bail easier for dangerous and repeat offenders. I am not talking about any other aspect of bill C-75. Since those specific changes in Bill C-75, has the overall crime rate gone up or down in Canada?
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 11:05:07 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-5 
Mr. Speaker, I would indicate that some of these questions might be best put at committee of the whole to the Minister of Health and the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, who will be here next Wednesday in a similar format. I would also reiterate that, under Bill C-5, changes were implemented to encourage alternative responses to simple possession.
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