OTTAWA – “I am very glad to see our government continue to follow through on our promise to help protect Canadian families and communities,” says Leon Benoit, Member of Parliament for Vegreville-Wainwright. “We promised to act, and we are doing so.”

Benoit was referring to the latest piece of crime legislation tabled by the Conservative government. Bill C-25, an Act to amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act, will provide new tools to ensure that young offenders who commit serious crimes are held accountable to their communities and to their victims.

“All Canadians want to protect their children from crime, but young offenders need more than a ‘time out’,” explains Benoit. “Clearly we must do everything we can to protect our children from being victims of crime, but it is also our responsibility to do everything we can to prevent at-risk young people from falling into the trap of themselves becoming criminal offenders so early in life.”

“For too long, the criminal justice system has been giving too many breaks to dangerous young offenders at the expense of the victims of crime,” continues Benoit. “Too many young offenders know they can break the law with near-impunity without facing serious charges. As a result, violent crime by young people is rising. Homicides by young people are at the highest level since statistics started being kept on the subject. And more and more young people are falling victim to violent crime.”

Benoit agrees that young offenders must be held accountable for serious crimes and that Canada’s justice system must always demonstrate that actions have consequences. “Young offenders can be rehabilitated, but a big part of rehabilitation is ensuring they take responsibility for their delinquent or criminal behaviour,” states Benoit. The MP went on to explain that effective young offenders’ laws must include deterrence and denunciation as principles of sentencing and must also prevent the most dangerous young offenders from being automatically released out into the community where they are at risk to re-offend.

Bill C-25 is part of the Conservative Government’s plan to make Canada’s communities safer. It follows Bill C-2, The Tackling Violent Crime Act, which contains the significant crime bills that were extensively debated by Parliament during its last session, but which never became law due to the opposition’s stall and delay tactics.

The measures included in Bill C-2 will:

• impose mandatory jail time for serious crimes committed using guns;

• create tougher bail rules when a gun is used to commit a crime;

• increase the age of protection for sexual activity from 14 years to 16 years;

• crack down on drug impaired driving; and

• ensure that high-risk and dangerous offenders face tougher consequences when they are sentenced and are better monitored post-release to prevent them from offending again and again.

“We still have more to do,” concludes Benoit. “Future legislation will deal with a range of other equally pressing issues such as identity theft and mandatory penalties for serious drug crimes.”

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