The federal government is heeding the message that Canadians are delivering – reduce violent crime by making the criminal justice system stronger.

We’re listening. As soon as Parliament reconvened this fall, the government introduced Bill C-2 to put our “tough on crime” agenda back in play. We see it as the government’s priority to protect our homes, streets and communities against persons who would do us harm. This government is determined to win the war against criminals.

Bill C-2 is an important step to:

• protect youth from sexual predators;
• protect our communities from dangerous offenders;
• deter drug impaired drivers; and,
• fortify sentencing and bail for those who commit serious gun crimes.

Bill C-2 is known as the Tackling Violent Crime Act. It addresses a number of significant issues that were debated at length in the previous session of Parliament. The bill contains previous House of Commons amendments on each measure, so we have deemed it a matter of confidence. We have been advised that the majority opposition parties do not plan to defeat it, which would force another federal election that no one really wants.

The legislation proposes that persons convicted of certain violent or sexual offences three or more times would be required to convince the court why they should not be designated as Dangerous Offenders.

The age of consent for non-exploitative sexual activity would be raised from 14 to 16 years old to better protect young persons from adult sexual predators.

There would be higher mandatory prison sentences for serious gun crimes and persons accused of such crimes would have to argue why they should not be kept in jail while awaiting trial.

We also believe police need better tools to detect and investigate drug- and alcohol-impaired driving. Harsher penalties for impaired driving will have a deterrent effect.

The Tackling Violent Crime Act is the centrepiece and the first in a series of new crime bills that will be announced in the near future. Subsequent bills will address serious drug crime, youth crime, identity theft, and property crime.

Bill C-2 includes those bills from the last sitting that were held up in opposition-controlled standing committees. There is no reason why this legislation should not receive Parliament’s approval without delay. The Official Opposition has allowed our Throne Speech to pass, so there should be no appetite to obstruct our core priorities.

- 30 -