Hon. David Lametti, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada: Thank you, senator. Once again, this is an important question, but it exposes erroneous claims made by some members of the Conservative Party. Bill C-5 has nothing to do with gangs. It does not address drug and gang crime at all. In fact, Bill C-21 does the opposite: It increases maximum sentences for these crimes from 10 to 14 years. We are also prohibiting assault weapons, and Bill C-21 will put a freeze on handguns, which are obviously the weapons of choice for gang members.

I am a Montrealer too, senator, and these incidents affect me deeply. However, I can tell you that no government in Canada’s history has invested as heavily in securing our borders and fighting gangs. We’re working hand in hand with Quebec and the other provinces to combat gangs and gun trafficking. We will continue to do so, but Bill C-5 does not deal with that; it’s independent.

[English]

Hon. David Lametti, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada: Thank you, senator, for that question, even though I disagree with the way in which it characterizes the issue. It will always be the case that serious crimes will attract serious penalties and that public security is our number one concern.

What we are doing, honourable senator, is making sure that where there is no threat to public security — and a conditional sentence order is only available when there is no threat to public security and the sentence that would be given would be less than two years. These are cases where incarceration is not the best way forward.

I would point you to recent comments by Justice Michael Moldaver — one of the leading law thinkers in Canada and a recently retired justice on the Supreme Court of Canada — who said that our criminal justice system needs to concentrate its resources on serious crime and should not be turning to incarceration where it is not the best way forward, either for the victim or for society at large.

Again, while you cite serious crimes, where those crimes are serious — and where the situation and circumstances were serious — those will always attract serious penalties. What we are doing here is allowing flexibility for a problem, such as a problematic addiction or another social challenge, to be addressed directly as opposed to using incarceration as a means to address that type of social problem.

To repeat, serious crimes will always carry serious sentences and conditional sentence orders are only available where there is no threat to public security.

Hon. Marty Klyne: Minister Lametti, with Bill C-5, the government is moving away from mandatory minimum penalties for some crimes, as a reflection of those mandatory minimum penalties disproportionately affecting Indigenous and racialized populations. This is part of the federal government’s efforts to address systemic racism in the criminal justice system.

However, as we know, this bill was not conceived to address the economic and social factors that create the conditions that lead to overrepresentation of those groups in the system in the first place. Can you tell us what will be done by the federal government — and within your department specifically — to address those root causes?