Mr. Speaker, we have heard quite a few speeches today. Many people have spoken on the subject. I would like to reiterate that we all agree on the fact that Canadians always have the right and obviously deserve to feel safe and secure when they are out and about regardless of their gender. That is very important.

We obviously agree with the opposition members that serious action must urgently be taken to address violent crime, whether or not it involves firearms. However, unfortunately, they are proposing a very rigid American-, cowboy-style “three strikes" law. That is not a solution, and I will explain why.

I will explain why because, when our colleague moved the motion, he did not provide any sort of explanation involving facts or evidence. There is nothing in his proposal about prevention. Mainly, what we are seeing are coercive measures. Where are the preventive measures that the Conservatives talked about in their platform? They are nowhere to be seen.

This type of law has been used by our neighbours to the south and found to be ineffective, obsolete. What are the Conservatives doing now? They are importing legislation that unfortunately did not work for our neighbours to the south. They are copying and pasting that legislation as is, without taking into consideration the data and the socio-economic context of our country, without taking into consideration any input that may come from stakeholders, including our police chiefs, organizations, lawyers, court services and so on.

Also, I hear my colleagues talking about rules that would take away judges' discretion, rules that have also proven ineffective. These measures are legally tenuous and more likely to produce unjust results. Rather than import these failed American policies that would increase the prison population without achieving the stated objective of making communities safer, we should instead opt for evidence-based reforms that target violent repeat offenders while respecting the values of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and ensuring swift access to justice.

Instead of adopting overly simplistic ideas, what has our government done? There is a difference between common sense and oversimplification. The ideas we have heard today from the other side of the House have been very oversimplified. Instead, what we did as a government was to get all stakeholders involved in our decision-making and analysis in order to better understand the context.

We met with provincial and territorial officials, police chiefs, police associations, lawyers, defence attorneys and Crown prosecutors. All these stakeholders have their own experience, which is not necessarily consistent across Canada. On the contrary, the contexts vary from one place to another, from one province to another and from one region to another.

For this reason, our government will introduce legislation this fall to strengthen Canada's bail system by making it harder for repeat offenders to get bail, to increase sentences for the most serious and violent repeat offences, and to reduce court delays, which will be very helpful at ensuring that serious cases, including femicide cases, are dealt with more quickly and victims are not retraumatized by court delays and procedural delays.

These commitments are part of the Liberal public safety platform, which promised to combat gun violence and organized crime by strengthening the fight against smuggling at the border by equipping the police with investigative tools. We hope that the members opposite will agree with us on the more thoroughly analyzed and studied aspects. We need to make bail laws stricter to keep violent repeat offenders off the streets while upholding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We need to support victims of crime by improving services and ensuring that their voices are heard in the justice system. Finally, we need to invest in prevention and community safety while protecting Canadians from emerging threats, including human trafficking, cybercrime and criminal networks, which may or may not be organized, but which are growing increasingly sophisticated.

It should be noted that, although the federal government sets the rules for bail and sentencing, it is the provinces that oversee the prison system and pre-trial detention. That is why real solutions require close collaboration between the two levels of government. The provinces and territories also have tools at their disposal to toughen and enforce bail laws, and we encourage them to use them. Canadians deserve to be safe, not to be fed slogans. Today, we heard a whole slew of very simplistic slogans from the other side of the House. Community safety is not about slogans. It cannot be addressed with simplistic statements like the ones we unfortunately heard today. We must provide the sense of peace and security on the streets that Canadians deserve. Women deserve to walk safely at night. Our young people have the right to play safely in the streets. We are working closely with the provinces and territories on bail reform, and that is very important.

I also want to talk about community safety. We all deserve to feel safe in Canada. Unlike the members on the other side of the House, we are not playing this political game. We do not want to scare Canadians. Our country is not the wild west, so let us stop scaring Canadians. We need to work closely together. Yes, there is a problem, but trampling on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is not the way to solve this kind of problem.

We oppose this motion because it is based on a false premise, a misrepresentation of Liberal reforms, and because it proposes a failed U.S.-style solution. The “three strikes and you're out” law is a rigid law that would undermine judicial independence, potentially result in unconstitutional outcomes and lead to costly over-incarceration without deterring people from committing crimes. Rather than adopting failed American policies, let us work together with all stakeholders, with the provinces, with the territories, with people who have experience, with evidence. That is what we need to do.

Our government was elected by Canadians on a platform aimed at improving public safety, building trust in the justice system and ensuring that violent offenders face real consequences. As I said earlier, we are working in partnership with the territories, provinces, law enforcement and communities across the country to achieve that. The Conservative motion may make a good bumper sticker, but Canadians deserve policies that make their streets safer.

Abdelhaq Sari

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