Senator Boisvenu: I take it, then, that there’s no connection between discharges and overcrowding. However, you’re saying that there is a connection between the reverse onus for offenders from all walks of life and overcrowding. Will you be voting against the bill?

Senator Boniface: Thank you very much. I know you share the same concerns I do. I want a bill that’s effective, but I look at events such as the ones that just took place in Sault Ste. Marie as an example. Again, there is a second victim, a third victim, now a fourth victim and a fifth victim. I’m not saying that case had anything to do with bail, but the violence that is in perpetrators does not just impact one person. I guess I’m surprised that the committee didn’t hear some evidence regarding repeat offenders.

Senator Boisvenu: That is absolutely true. We are referring here to repeat offenders. Put yourself in the shoes of a victim who found out that her abuser, for all sorts of reasons, is travelling to the United States. Justice granted him a full discharge. The victim is under the impression that the individual didn’t receive a sentence for the assault he committed. The victim feels frustrated.

It remains a privilege that this individual receives, and it is a unique privilege. This privilege is conditional on one thing: He must not reoffend.

This individual who would abuse another spouse and end up before the same judge might tell him that he’s not a repeat offender since he was granted a discharge.

In my opinion, the discharge is a privilege that requires an obligation not to reoffend. If you reoffend, that privilege is revoked. This will apply mostly in the case of men who are repeat violent offenders. We’re talking about repeat offenders who are a risk to women, not only abused women, but all women.

[English]

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Having this Liberal government is cruel and unusual punishment. Time and again, the Prime Minister shows he’s not worth the cost, and this response to the matter of victims’ rights is no exception. The NDP-Liberal government let the position of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime go vacant for 361 days. In 2018, when the position of the ombudsman for federally sentenced offenders became vacant, it was filled the very next day.

Why are victims’ rights and safe streets always an afterthought for the Trudeau government?