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A Liberal Response to CAVEAT
Reply to Election 2000 Survey
1. Will you, with regard to Victims' Rights, support legislation that allows for mandatory HIV testing of sexual offenders after their first offence?
The idea of mandatory HIV testing of sexual offenders raises concerns relating to privacy, searches and seizures and human rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The taking of bodily substances always raises significant constitutional issues and Charter issues.
The issue of blood testing has been the subject of extensive study in the criminal field, in the context of sexual assault. Medical experts advise that the only way a victim of sexual assault can be sure that he or she has not been infected is by undergoing hepatitis B or C or HIV antibody testing according to recommended procedures.
2. Will you, with regard to Justice Reform, work to abolish Section 745 from the Criminal Code of Canada and thereby remove the so-called "faint -hope clause" for convicted murderers?
Section 745.6 speaks to a belief, shared by many Canadians, that even people who are guilty of a terrible act should be given a chance to come to terms with their crime and rehabilitate themselves.
Section 745.6 was intended for the exceptional case, where the offender has really been able to turn their life around. Our Government's amendments to S.745.6 have strengthened this.
With the amendments made in 1997, offenders who commit multiple murders will no longer be allowed to apply for a judicial review. In addition, a screening mechanism was put in place whereby a superior court judge can screen out applications that have "no reasonable prospect of success", and a new requirement was added that the jury considering the application must be unanimous in order to reduce the parole ineligibility period. (Previously, two thirds of the jury could decide to reduce the parole ineligibility period.)
Following amendments made by the Liberal government in Bill C-79, victims may also provide information orally or in writing at proceedings to determine whether an offender should have his or her parole ineligibility reduced on a life sentence for murder. At the time an offender is sentenced for murder, the judge is required to let the family members of the victim know if that offender may become eligible, after serving at least 15 years, to apply for a reduction of parole ineligibility.
With the changes we've made, our Government has reached out to the families of victims. The Victim's Fund, discussed below, will provide financial assistance to surviving family members of homicide victims to attend parole ineligibility hearings.
3. Will you, in the interest of Violence Prevention, support initiatives for the immediate implementation of a federal registry for convicted sex offenders?
A Liberal government is committed to protecting our children. The safety of children is an issue of the greatest concern to all of us
If we thought for a second that a national registry of sex offenders would improve public safety, we'd have one. Period.
In fact, federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Justice and Solicitors General have been looking at this for a number of years. And they've asked their officials to keep looking at options to enhance protection of children from sex offenders.
We have taken a number of steps that we know improve public safety and protect our kids:
1. Canada has a National Registry of all criminal convictions - through CPIC.
In 1994, The National Screening System was created, using the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC). It allows an agency serving children to request a local police criminal background check through the RCMP's Canadian Police Information Centre. This permits the agency to screen out potential volunteers known to be child sexual abusers.
In April 1999, the Solicitor General announced additional funding of $115 million to renew and enhance CPIC.
2. The Liberal government passed Bill C-7--which amended the Criminal Records Act to ensure that even the records of sex offenders who have been pardoned are available for screening purposes.
3. The Liberal government passed tough new measures to deal with high-risk offenders, including sex offenders, to strengthen the sentencing and correction regime. These include a new Long-Term Offender designation that targets sex offenders and adds a period of supervision of up to ten years following release from prison; amendments strengthening the Dangerous Offender provisions in the Criminal Code, including requiring judges to impose indeterminate sentences on all dangerous offenders; and a new judicial restraint provision to permit controls by applied to these at high risk of committing a serious personal injury offence. The Liberal government also established a national flagging system to help prosecutors deal more effectively with high-risk offenders. It also passed legislation, which included measures for easier detention of sex offenders in penitentiaries until the end of their sentences and to strengthen rehabilitation and treatment programs for sex offenders.
4. The Liberal government passed the DNA Identification Act, which came into force on June 30, 2000. It establishes a national DNA bank to be maintained by the RCMP.
Now judges may order offenders convicted of designated Criminal Code offences
to provide samples of bodily substances for DNA analysis, with the resulting DNA profiles preserved in a convicted offender's index within the national DNA data bank.
The data bank also includes a crime scene index containing DNA profiles obtained from unsolved crime scenes. The information can be cross-referenced to find a match in the system, which would identify repeat offenders. It will assist in linking and solving cases across police jurisdictional lines.
The Liberal government also amended the Criminal Code and the Young Offenders Act to make it easier for police officers to obtain DNA samples from suspects for investigative purposes.
In our 2000 election platform Opportunity For All, we promised that a new Liberal government would bring forward measures to better protect children from those who may re-offend.
Sentencing
The Criminal Code provides a tough sentencing scheme for both murder and sexual assault. Canada's record of imprisoning first degree murders for an average of 28.4 years ranks us as more punitive then virtually all western countries, including the United States.
The mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder is, literally, a life sentence. Offenders who receive a life sentence for murder will be under the restrictions of that sentence for the remainder of their lives, whether or not they are granted parole. If an offender is released into the community, that offender may be returned to custody for failure to comply with the conditions of the release. Some offenders are never granted parole and spend the rest of their lives in prison. Public safety is the number one consideration in all decisions relating to the release of federal offenders.
Our criminal law treats multiple murders differently than those who commit a single murder. For example, if an offender has previously been convicted of murder, the mandatory parole ineligibility period for second degree murder is 25 years rather than a minimum of 10 years. Another example is the amendment passed by the Liberal government in 1996 to ensure that, after January 9, 1997, offenders who commit more than one murder are no longer eligible to apply for a parole ineligibility review under section 745.6, under any circumstances.
The Criminal Code also provides tough sentences for sexual assault. The maximum sentences for sexual assault, assault causing bodily harm or with a weapon, and aggravated sexual assault are 10 years, 14 years and life imprisonment, respectively. In cases where there is more than one victim or more than one assault, the Code allows judges to impose consecutive sentences on the offender. In all cases, sentencing judges must take into account any aggravation factors relating to the offence or the offender.
Conviction for a sexual assault offence can also lead to a finding that an offender is a dangerous offender, in which case the judge must impose an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment, or a long -term offender, in which case the judge must order the offender to serve a period of supervision in the community for a period of up to ten years following release from prison.
Giving Victims a Voice
The Liberal government is dedicated to giving victims of crime a voice within the criminal justice system. In fact, in response to recommendations from the House Standing Committee on Justice, we have committed to take action on a number of fronts to provide a corrections and conditional release process that is more respectful of the concerns and needs of victims. We will:
Ø provide victims with better and more timely information;
Ø prevent unwanted communications from offenders;
Ø provide victims an opportunity to read their impact statements at parole hearings;
Ø create a special office to respond to questions and problems that victims may have about the corrections system generally or about offenders.
These commitments will complement many of the initiatives already taken by this government. For example, we amended the Criminal Code to enhance the safety, security and privacy of crime victims and to ensure that crime victims are treated with courtesy, compassion and respect.
Now all offenders, except in the most exceptional cases, are required to pay a victim surcharge, an additional monetary penalty imposed at the time of sentencing. Provinces and territories will use these revenues to support victims through programs and services. Revenue from the victim surcharge is expected to yield over $10 million annually.
The Criminal Code was also amended to allow victims to read victim impact statements in court so that they may describe the harm and loss they have suffered because of the crime. Before sentencing an offender, judges are required to ask whether the victim has been informed of the opportunity to prepare such a statement.
Following amendments made by the Liberal government in Bill C-79, victims may also provide information orally or in writing at proceedings to determine whether an offender should have his or her parole ineligibility reduced on a life sentence for murder. At the time an offender is sentenced for murder, the judge is required to let the family members of the victim know if that offender may become eligible, after serving at least 15 years, to apply for a reduction of parole ineligibility.
The Criminal Code also was amended to require police officers, judges and other judicial officers to take into account the safety of victims before releasing a suspect or accused person before the first court appearance.
Amendments made by the Liberal government expand the availability of publication bans to protect victims and witnesses, and prevent juvenile victims (under 18) from being subject to personal cross-examination by accused persons representing themselves in cases of sexual or violent crime.
The Liberal government is committed to respecting victims and giving them a greater role within the judicial system. The Liberal government recently allocated $25 million over five years to the newly created federal Policy Centre for Victim Issues. An important part of this new funding is a $10 million Victims' Fund to help provinces and territories and non-governmental organizations better meet the needs of victims of crime. This funding is in addition to the revenue from the mandatory victim surcharge that will go to provinces and territories for victim services.
The Victims' Fund will also provide limited emergency financial assistance to individual victims of crime or surviving family members faced with unusual or extreme hardship due to criminal victimization where no other adequate source of financial assistance is available. In addition, this component will provide financial assistance to surviving family members of homicide victims to attend parole ineligibility hearings.
To ensure that the perspective of victims of crime is considered in the development of policies and legislation, the remaining $15 million will be dedicated to research, consultations, public legal education and awareness of victim rights and concerns.
Criminal justice initiatives
As stated in our 2000 election platform Opportunity For All, the Liberal government has tackled crime through a tough but balanced approach. We have focussed prevention as much as punishment, and we have considered the rights of victims, while stiffening the penalties for criminals.
Since taking office in 1993, to ensure the safety and security of Canadians and their communities and to protect and support victims of crime, the Liberal government has:
· Amended the Criminal Code to strengthen the voice of victims of crime. New provisions ensure that victims have the opportunity to prepare and read victim impact statement sin court if they so choose, require judges and police to take into account the safety of victims at bail hearings, protect and support victims and witnesses who testify at trials, encourage the making of restitution to victims, and impose an automatic victim fine surcharge in addition to any other penalty. The government also created victims' fund dedicated to victim-related initiatives and established a federal Policy Centre for Victim Issues.
· Launched the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention, which includes a $32 million a year national crime prevention initiative aimed at developing community-based responses to crime, with particular emphasis on children and youth, women and Aboriginal people. To date, the initiative has funded more than 1200 projects across Canada.
· Strengthened gun control: the government has toughened criminal sanctions for the criminal use of firearms, taken measures to address the problem of smuggling and illegal importation of firearms, including mandatory minimum sentences, and established national registration and licensing systems.
· Launched a balanced, progressive and integrated strategy for the renewal of the youth justice system. To ensure the long-term protection of the public, the strategy focuses on the three key areas: (1) preventing youth crime; (2) ensuring meaningful consequences for youth crime; and (3) emphasizing rehabilitation and reintegration. A key element of this strategy is the new Youth Criminal Justice Act, which will replace the existing Young Offenders Act.
· Amended the Criminal Code to deal more effectively with high-risk offenders. The amendments strengthened the Dangerous Offender provisions in the Criminal Code, introduced a new Long-Term Offender designation that allows judges to impose a period of supervision of up to ten years following release from prison, and created a new judicial restraint provision to permit controls to be applied to those a high risk of committing a serious personal injury offence. The government also established a national flagging system to help prosecutors deal more effectively with high-risk offenders.
· Passed legislation to improve public safety through changes in the parole and corrections systems, including measures for easier detention of sex offenders in penitentiaries until the end of their sentences and measures to strengthen rehabilitation and treatment programs for sex offenders.
· Established a national DNA databank that includes a convicted offenders index, containing DNA profiles from offenders convicted of serious offences, and a crime scene index, containing profiles from unsolved crime scenes.
· Amended the Criminal Code and the Young Offenders Act to make it easier for peace officers to obtain DNA samples from suspects for investigative purposes.
· Amended the Criminal Code to toughen the laws on child prostitution and child sex tourism.
· Amended the Criminal Code to ensure that peace bonds are effective in keeping abusers away from women and children.
· Passed legislation to make criminal records of pardoned sex offenders available for background checks.
· Established a National Information System on Child Sex Offenders, which will enable employers and organizations to determine if a job applicant has a criminal record for sexual offences, before allowing the applicant to work with children.
· Introduced amendments to the Criminal Code that would toughen sentencing provisions for home invasions.
· Introduced amendments to the Criminal Code that would toughen sentencing provisions for criminal harassment, or stalking, and released a Handbook for Police and Crown Prosecutors on Criminal Harassment. The government also amended the Criminal Code to ensure that those who commit murder while stalking their victims will be convicted of first-degree murder.
· Amended the Criminal Code to tighten the "Faint-Hope Clause" (section 745.6 of the code), making it more difficult for offenders serving life sentences to obtain the right to apply for early parole and prohibiting its use by those who commit multiple murders.
· Amended the Criminal Code to ensure that police have the ability to enter a home to arrest someone without delay.
· Introduced amendments to the Criminal Code to create a new offence of disarming or attempting to disarm a police officer.
· Passed tough anti-gang measures, including the creation of a new criminal offence of "participation in a criminal organization", tougher sentencing provisions, a reverse onus for persons charged with a criminal organization offence seeking bail, a new peace bond which may be issued when there are grounds to fear that a person will commit a criminal organization offence, and additional police powers to seize the proceeds of organized crime and to conduct surveillance of gangs.
· Amended the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to make people convicted of organized crime offences ineligible for accelerated parole review.
· Established thirteen Integrated Proceeds of Crime units to target organized crime groups and seize their ill-gotten assets.
· Established the Canada-U.S. Cross-Border Crime Forum to improve cooperation and information sharing between our two countries.
· Signed agreements between the RCMP and U.S. law enforcement agencies to provide reciprocal direct access to each other's criminal databases, such as the Canadian Police Information Centre, a firearms identification database, and a unique automotive paint chip database.
· Provided new resources to modernize the Canadian Police Information Centre, the computerized information system for Canadian law enforcement.
· Established an Anti-Smuggling Initiative to target smuggling and distribution networks at the border, in our ports, and across the country.
· Passed tough money laundering legislation, which introduced tools to improve detection, prevention and deterrence of money laundering in Canada.
· Provided the RCMP substantial budget increases to better fight organized crime and cross-border public safety threats, modernize its computer and radio systems, and maintain and improve its National Police Services, which provide technical services to the Canadian law enforcement community.
· Passed a new Extradition Act, which simplifies and modernizes Canada's extradition procedures, expands Canada's capacity to extradite and responds to the problem of borderless crimes such as organized crime, deceptive telemarketing and Internet fraud.
· Introduced the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which would establish new offences and stiffer penalties for human trafficking and people smuggling.
· Passed legislation tightening controls on immigration fraud and abuse by convicted criminals and taken measures to ensure that those with criminal convictions are removed from Canada when so ordered.
· Made significant progress in bringing to justice those involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity and in ensuring that Canada is not a safe haven for war criminals.
· Passed tough legislation targeting impaired drivers. The amendments establish stiffer penalties for impaired driving and for fleeing the scene of any accident and provide police with more effective tools to investigate impaired driving offences.
· Amended the Customs Act and the Criminal Code to give customs officers the power to deal with impaired driving offences.
· Supported Aboriginal community justice initiatives through the Aboriginal Justice Strategy.
· Amended the Criminal Code to expand the powers of courts to impose non-communication orders that prevent accused persons from contacting victims or witnesses.
· Amended the Criminal Code to establish the office of sexual exploitation against persons with disabilities.
· Passed the Witness Protection Program Act, which established a formal, national program to protect those who risk their lives to assist police investigations.
· Introduced amendments to the Criminal Code to strengthen the protection against cruelty towards animals.
· Amended the Criminal Code to deal more effectively with offenders who breach a conditional sentence order.
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· Amended the Criminal Code to prohibit use of the drunkenness defence for general intent crimes of violence, including sexual assault.
· Amended the Criminal Code to ensure that those who commit crimes of hate receive harsher sentences.
· Amended the Criminal Code to strengthen the privacy rights of victims of sexual assault by restricting access to medical, counselling, therapeutic and other personal records.
· Amended the federal Competition Act to create new offences related to deceptive telemarketing and also amended the Criminal Code to target the proceeds of deceptive telemarketing for seizure and forfeiture.
As stated in our 2000 election platform Opportunity For All, a new Liberal government will take further steps to protect Canadians from crime and victimization. We will:
· Further protect children by adding to the Criminal Code specific offences against children, such as criminal child neglect and using the internet to lure children for sexual purposes.
· Better protect children from those who may re-offend, and we will make it easier for children to provide testimony in criminal matters.
· Re-introduce legislation to change how the justice system deals with young offenders. These changes will provide tougher consequences for youths age 14 and over who commit violent crimes, while encouraging alternatives to custody for non-violent offenders.
· Work with the provinces on approaches outside the criminal justice system to deal with children under 12 who commit crimes.
· Substantially increase resources for the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention to broaden and sustain community crime prevention efforts across the country. We will expand the reach of this initiative to better meet the needs of vulnerable groups such as seniors and persons with disabilities.
· Increase the recognition of victims in the criminal justice system by ensuring that their perspective is considered in the development of legislation and by providing funding to help communities enhance services for victims of crime.
· Introduce additional measures, as part of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Action Plan on Organized Crime, to target proceeds of crime, facilitate investigation and prosecution of organized crime, and protect members of the justice system from intimidation.
· Review and strengthen anti-gang laws.
· Provide federal law enforcement agencies with the resources they need to fight organized crime.
· Implement a National Drug Strategy to reduce both the supply of and demand for drugs, and to crack down on organized crime. To this end, we will invest $420 million over four years to enhance prevention, improve treatment and rehabilitation, and support enforcement and control responses.
copyright © 2000 - CAVEAT
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