Scarborough, Ontario - 4 March 2015
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon.
First of all, I want to thank everybody for joining us here today.
We have concerned citizens from all walks of life.
In particular, a number of people who are parts of families who have been victims of some terrible crimes and have joined us today to share their experiences and lend their support for the reforms we’re going to make and preventing these kinds of things happening to other people.
So we certainly appreciate all of your presence today.
I also appreciate the presence of so many of my colleagues.
Obviously, Roxanne James who kicked this off.
But I also want to say a word about Peter MacKay because the legislation I’m going to talk about in a moment is actually Peter MacKay’s legislation.
Peter, as many of you know, got into this business partly because of a passion for this issue as a former Crown prosecutor, and he really has been instrumental in putting together the legislation I’m going to talk about today.
So one more big hand for the Minister of Justice, Peter MacKay.
Also for making available their fine facility for this announcement, let’s give thanks to our hosts here at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m here today to talk about our Government’s ultimate purpose.
What should be the ultimate purpose of any government: the protection of Canadians.
I’m here today to talk about our Government’s highest purpose, what should be the highest purpose of any government: the protection of Canadians.
Ensuring our streets and communities and our country are safe for honest, law-abiding people as we live, work, and raise our families.
At all times, we have endeavoured to ensure that our system of criminal justice reflects both this high purpose and the values and priorities of Canadians more broadly.
For example, to give victims of crime a stronger voice, we introduced our Victims Bill of Rights.
For too many years, the welfare of the criminal was held up as the highest priority of criminal justice.
This historic legislation, the Victims Bill of Rights, aims to put innocent victims back where they should have been all along – at the very heart of our system of justice.
We’ve also changed laws regarding people deemed not criminally responsible for violent acts.
Ensuring that while dangerous offenders with mental illness receive the care they need, we also take care of the safety of the public.
Reflecting Canadian values also means that both the gravity of the offence and the need to protect Canadians must be considered in sentencing.
That’s why we got rid of the ‘faint hope clause’ that allowed killers to apply for early parole.
That’s why, when a criminal kills more than one person, under our law, judges can now impose consecutive sentences and take every single lost life into account.
That is why we have made it easier to deport foreign criminals from Canadian soil and made it more difficult for them to enter the country in the first place.
That’s why we’ve made it easier to remove dangerous foreign criminals from Canada’s shores and to make it more difficult for them to even get here in the first place.
That’s why we’ve toughened penalties, including creating mandatory prison sentences for many serious violent offences, in particular, sex crimes against children.
And that is also why I just recently announced that we are ending statutory release, which means that we are eliminating parole for repeat violent offenders.
And that’s also why I just recently announced that we are ending statutory release.
That is: ending automatic parole for repeat violent offenders.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, when we say all of these things, let’s be clear, we desire the rehabilitation of all criminals.
But certain criminals are too cruel, too dangerous to be released.
Now let me be clear.
When I speak about all of these things, ladies and gentlemen, when somebody breaks the law and pays their debt to society, our hope is always for permanent rehabilitation.
Nobody wants to see anybody degenerate into a lifetime of crime, but there are some criminals—the most dangerous, violent offenders—whose actions mean that we cannot risk permitting them back on our streets.
Yet, as the law stands, sometimes we do.
Specifically, criminals who prey on society’s most vulnerable, plotting kidnapping or sexual assault that ends in murder.
Criminals with such contempt for law and order that they kill correctional or police officers charged with our protection.
Criminals who so despise our values—our way of life—that they carry out deadly attacks of terrorism and high treason.
Criminals whose crimes are so horrific, that they shock the conscience of the entire community.
The freedom of these criminals would compromise the freedom of everyone around them.
Ladies and gentlemen, the suffering of the victims of such horrific crimes and the suffering of those who love them is bad enough.
But what if, when the whole truth is known, they should find out that the crime could have been prevented in the first place – that this crime should have been prevented but wasn’t.
That the perpetrator was someone who could have been, should have been securely behind bars.
When that is discovered, at that moment, their anguish compounded by disbelief becomes outrage.
Not just to them but to the entire community, to the entire country.
And then we are all left to wonder what justice really means.
They, we, feel betrayed.
And Canadians ask rightly why the most dangerous killers, once imprisoned should ever be free again only to threaten our children, our families, our friends, our neighbours, our fellow citizens.
It is very hard to argue with that and our Government has no intention of arguing with that.
This sort of thing must end in this country.
Ladies and gentlemen, the fact is there are certain criminals who should never ever be allowed to walk the streets where you and your neighbours live and work, or the streets where our children play.
And there are certain crimes so repulsive that only a life-long punishment adequately reflects their truly horrific nature.
I’m therefore proud to announce that next week our Government will introduce legislation to ensure that for the most heinous offenders and the most horrific crimes, a life sentence in Canada will henceforth mean exactly that: a sentence for life.
Now, friends, because to address certain legitimate constitutional concerns, there must be some recourse for exceptional circumstances.
So, our legislation will permit a killer serving life without parole to voluntarily petition the Minister for Public Safety for release after serving no less than 35 years.
Now let me be clear.
This is not parole.
Unlike parole, decisions will not rest with an appointed board but with the federal cabinet.
Men and women fully accountable to their fellow citizens and to the families of the victims of these crimes.
Ladies and gentlemen, why do we want to impose a life sentence without possibility of parole in cases like these?
The answer is simple really.
God forbid we should ever find ourselves saying that we should have known better than to release such a criminal.
That we could have, should have gone farther, done more, and that we did not do enough to prevent yet another horrible crime.
That is what Canadians expect and these are the values that most Canadians share.
Canadians want a country where justice—real justice—is at the heart of our legal system, where a balance is struck between hope for rehabilitation and the imposition of appropriate punishment and prevention.
With compassion for law-abiding people and their families.
And particularly for victims of the most odious crimes.
This is also, as I said at the outset, our ultimate responsibility.
To ensure we have a society where honest, hardworking people can raise their families, where they can prosper, and where they can go calmly about their business in peace and security.
And that is what we are doing today, and I want to thank all of you for joining us for this important announcement.
Thank you very much.
