Justice delayed is justice denied

Submitted by Ken Boshcoff M.P. Over the past year, we have heard the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice criticize the Official Opposition for “delaying” or “stalling” their justice legislation. In his speech on October 18, 2007 to introduce Bill C-2: The Tackling Violent Crime Act, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said, “Although we accommodate many of the opposition’s amendments, the bills were held up in opposition-controlled house committees or the Liberal majority in the Senate for a total of 976 days”. So, what’s the real story? The reality is that the Liberal Caucus supported the vast majority of the Conservative’s Justice Bills in the last session. The Conservatives have been delaying their own legislation while “spinning” the blame to the Opposition parties but only the government can decide the order in which Bills are debated. During the first session of the 39th Parliament, the Government introduced a total of 13 Justice Bills. The Liberal Caucus unconditionally supported 10 of those Bills and even offered to fast track eight of them through the House of Commons. While the Government continued to cry and moan about these Bills being “held up”, they refused to put the legislation on the agenda for discussion. On October 26/06, the Liberal Caucus offered to fast track C-9 (Conditional Sentences – with approved amendment), C-18 (DNA identification), C-19 (street racing), C-22 (age of consent), C-23 (criminal procedure), and C-26 (payday loans). Despite this, the Conservatives put forward only C-19 for debate. Every other bill included in the offer to fast track was delayed. With C-18 they waited until February to deal with the Bill in committee (nearly 9 weeks of inaction). C-22 was debated at second reading on October 30th but did not go to Committee until March 21st (11 weeks later). C-23 had already passed second reading but was stalled by the Government for almost 17 weeks before it was brought forward to Committee. A simple review of the debate agenda for each Bill shows clearly that the blame for the snails-pace progress on these Justice Bills falls squarely on the shoulders of the Government. Now the Government has tabled Bill C-2: Tackling Violent Crime Act. This Bill is an amalgamation of five previous Bills: C-10 (mandatory minimums), C-22 (aged of consent), C-27 (dangerous offenders), C-32 (impaired driving), and C-35 (bail reform). Of these bills, three had already been passed by the House and one had already gone through the committee process. Now the Government wants us to start back at square one rather than reinstating them at the stage that they had reached before the Prime Minister prorogued the House…another delay. The Harper Government must stop playing partisan games with the Criminal Code. Canadians deserve strong laws to keep them safe; my colleagues and I will do our job to ensure a responsible approach to justice issues.