Last week our Government introduced legislation that will ensure key criminal justice reforms move swiftly through the legislative process and finally become law. The Tackling Violent Crime Act brings forth again the significant crime bills that were extensively debated by Parliament during its last session, but never became law due to the opposition’s stall and delay tactics.

Canadians have told us they want to see action. They want us to move quickly and decisively to tackle crime and make our communities safer. They are fed up with a justice system that puts the rights of criminals ahead of the rights of law-abiding citizens.

By introducing this comprehensive Tackling Violent Crime Act, our Government is showing that it is serious about the need to better protect youth from sexual predators, protect our communities from dangerous offenders, get serious with drug impaired drivers and toughen sentencing and bail for those who commit serious gun crimes. The measures included in the legislation will:

• impose mandatory jail time for serious gun crimes;

• 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.
 
All the measures included in this legislation were studied in depth by Parliament in the last session, in fact some were held up for over one year. Personally, I am very frustrated with the opposition parties for holding up our Age of Protection legislation in the last session.  The bill was introduced on June 22, 2006 and died in the Senate after 365 days of obstruction by he opposition.

I cannot believe a responsible Member of Parliament would be opposed to legislation that would make it a criminal offence for a 40-year-old adult to become sexually engaged with a 15-year-old teenager. If the opposition allows our Throne Speech to pass, they cannot obstruct our core priorities including this bill.  And to hold them to account, we will make a Bill C-2 a confidence bill.

This legislative proposal is the centrepiece in a series of new crime bills we intend to introduce as soon as possible. Upcoming legislation will deal with a range of pressing issues such as identity theft, mandatory penalties for serious drug crimes and amendments to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

As I indicated earlier, it is time our justice system put victims’ rights ahead of criminals’ rights.  I endorse the Prime Minister’s decision to make this legislation a confidence motion.  I believe it is time to deal with this issue once and for all.