BREITKREUZ’S ANTI-BULLYING BILL

AMENDMENTS PROPOSED

Garry Breitkreuz’s Private Member’s Bill to amend both the Youth Criminal Justice Act and the Criminal Code of Canada will be based on the following recommendations:

  • Amend the Criminal Code of Canada to include a new offence of “bullying” as a dual procedure offence (meaning prosecution could proceed as a summary conviction or indictable offence depending on the seriousness of the bullying). The definition of ‘bullying’ should take into account all types of bullying including those that are not currently considered offences under the Criminal Code.
  • Keep the current age of criminal responsibility under the Youth Criminal Justice Act at 12 years of age, but amend the Act to allow the courts to prosecute some habitual, repeat or violent offenders who are younger than 12 on a case-by-case basis.
  • Amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act to include deterrence and denunciation as mandatory sentencing principles to be considered.
  • Keep the established practice under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, whereby all young persons (under 18 years of age) are to be tried in a youth justice court but amend the Act to allow (on a case-by-case basis) the courts to prosecute in adult court habitual, repeat, violent offenders or where the young person is alleged to have committed a “presumptive offence” such as murder, attempted murder, manslaughter or aggravated sexual assault.
  • Amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act to provide for mandatory jail sentences for all breaches of probations and conditional sentences; however, no minimum mandatory sentence would be stipulated.
  • Amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act to allow Youth Court Judges to impose conditions on the parents of convicted young offenders that the judges deem appropriate to deal effectively with the underlying causes of the criminal activity and/or the problems with the parent young offender relationship or a lack of appropriate parenting.
  • Keep the established practice under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, whereby an adult sentence may also be imposed upon a young person who has a history of committing serious violent offences and that the adult sentence be served in a youth custody facility until they are 18 but amend the Act to allow (on a case-by-case basis) the courts to sentence habitual, repeat or violent offenders to adult correctional facilities and/or to make the transfer to an adult facility mandatory when the convicted young offender reaches 18 years of age.