Address by the Prime Minister on the Government's commitment to get tough on crimes involving weapons, gangs and drugs

Notes for an Address by

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada

For Delivery At the Winnipeg Convention Centre


PLEASE CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY


Introduction

Thank you, Vic,

Colleagues from the Parliament of Canada,

Premier Doer and Members of the Legislature,

Mayor Katz and Members of City Council,

Jennifer Jones and other honoured guests,

Pierre Blouin and our sponsors from MTS Allstream,

Chairman McClellan and members of the Chamber of Commerce,

Ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, let me say that it gives me great pleasure to be here in Winnipeg today.

Not least because I can see in one room the tremendous Manitobans I have the honour to work with in Ottawa.

We have great veterans like Joy Smith and Steven Fletcher here in Winnipeg, Vic Toews and Merv Tweed (Inky Mark, Brian Pallister, James Bezan, Janis Johnson, Terry Stratton) as well, and of course our newest addition to the Conservative caucus, of whom we’re very proud, Rod Bruinooge.

They’re a great team.  And they work hard.  For their constituents.  For Manitoba.  And for Canada.

Together with their colleagues from across Canada, they are working to make our new national Government one that keeps its commitments to Canadians.

Our Mission

We have a plan, and we are committed to implementing that plan.

And in our first Speech from the Throne, we identified five immediate priorities that we’ll be acting on starting this spring.

Today I’d like to talk to you about our commitment to get tough on crimes involving weapons, gangs and drugs– a commitment we’re going to keep.

Ladies and gentlemen, on January 23 Canadians voted for real change.

And they asked our party to lead that change.

We have responded by presenting Canadians with an agenda for change.

Change that will restore accountability and integrity to government in Ottawa;

Change that will renew federalism in order to build a Canada that works for all of us;

Change that will give Canada a more meaningful role on the international stage;

And change that will ensure opportunity and prosperity for all Canadians, not just a privileged few.

In short, an agenda that moves on past scandal and inaction in order to provide accountability and direction for Canada.
Five Priorities
As we made clear in our Speech from the Throne, our immediate agenda has five priorities.  Not fifteen.  Not fifty.  Five.

We know what we want to do.

And we have a plan and a focus to get it done.

Our plan starts with the Federal Accountability Act – a program to clean up government and make politicians accountable for your money.

We will move forward to cut taxes for all Canadians - starting with a cut to the GST from seven to six percent, and eventually to five percent.

We will work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee – giving Canadians the health care they need, when they need it.

As I told parents in Vancouver yesterday, we will also deliver universal choice in child care to Canadian families by providing parents with $1200 per year per child under six.

And, perhaps most importantly, we will work to safeguard the Canadian way of life by tackling the growing problem of gun, gang and drug crime.

Cracking down on crime

This is what I want to talk to you about today. 

Canada is a great country, and one of the things that has made Canada a great country has been our traditionally low crime rates.

Peaceful, law-abiding communities are an integral part of Canada’s traditional identity and values.

And there is no better embodiment of these important values than the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.   

Created in 1873 by Sir John A. Macdonald, the North West Mounted Police – as they were then called – were instrumental in bringing law and order to the Canadian West.

In much of western Canada, the law arrived before the settlers – a very different history and experience than we saw in the United States.

Canadians are rightly proud of this heritage.

Times, however, are changing.

Our communities are changing.

And the safe streets and safe neighbourhoods that Canadians have come to expect as being part of our way of life are being threatened by rising levels of gun, gang, and drug crime.

As you know, Winnipeg has not escaped this nation-wide problem.

This city – a centre of cultural excellence, sporting enthusiasm and charitable activity – is nevertheless plagued with far too many break-ins, car thefts, homicides and other violent crimes.

Many have tried to ignore the increase in gun, gang, and drug crime.

Some have tried to play it down.

Others have even gone so far as to blame it all on “social exclusion.”

But friends, pretending that something doesn’t exist, playing down the problem, or making excuses is not going to solve the problem.

As a country, we have a choice to make. 

Do we confront the problem directly or go on the same way and let it get worse?

For me.  For the members of our Manitoba caucus.  For Canada’s new national Government, the answer is clear:  we are going to do something.

This spring, we will undertake the first three steps in our plan to introduce comprehensive criminal justice reforms.

Led by Justice Minister Toews, the respected former Attorney General of this province, we will:

- introduce mandatory minimum prison sentences for serious, repeat and violent crime,
- end the practice of conditional sentences and house arrest,
- and raise the age of consent for sexual relations between children and adults from 14 to 16 years of age.

The action will start this Spring.

As part of our comprehensive justice reforms, we will move forward on three key fronts this Spring.

Mandatory Minimum Sentences

First, we will introduce mandatory minimum prison sentences for:

• Serious drug trafficking and weapons offences;

• Crimes committed while on parole;

• And for violent and repeat offenders.

This measure will go a long way to help beat back the epidemic of guns, gangs, and drugs that is plaguing our streets.

Tackling this crime is critical because it is becoming increasingly clear that rising levels of gun, gang and drug crime are not just a series of tragic, random events.

Organized criminal enterprise is fuelling much of the crime problem.  And it will take committed national and provincial governments as well as local police forces to combat this plague.

The stark reality of organized crime was driven home with force with the recent discovery of eight murdered men on a farm outside of London, Ontario.

It is believed that the executed men were members of the notorious Bandidos biker gang.

This crime - one which police have referred to as “an internal cleansing” - has both shocked and horrified Canadians across the country.

And rightly so.

Such systematic violence has no place in Canadian society.

And let me be clear, our Government has absolutely no intention of standing by and allowing this plague of violent, organized crime to grow unchecked.

To those who would traffic drugs in order to peddle them to our children, our message is clear…

To those who would smuggle guns across our border, our message is clear…

To those who would bring terror to our streets through their violent activity, our message is clear:

We will empower the police and the prosecutors with the tools they need to discover your enterprises, shut them down and put you behind bars.

Ending Conditional Sentences

Second, and closely related, we will move forward on putting an end to conditional sentences.

Simply put, the current practice of allowing some criminals who have been convicted of serious violent, sexual, weapons, and drug offences to serve out their sentences at home is unconscionable. 

Under Canada’s new national Government, serious offenders are going to serve their out sentences where they ought to – in prison.

Raising the Age of Consent

Third, this spring we will undertake the first step in our plans to protect our children.

Specifically, we will protect young people by raising the age of consent for sexual relations between adults and children from 14 to 16 years of age.

As you all know, this change will bring us in line with most of the world. It is long overdue, and is particularly important in the age of the internet when young people are targeted by cyber predators.

The Next Moves Forward

These three key justice reforms will be only the beginning of our plan to reform criminal justice in this country.

One step at a time, we will create a criminal justice system that makes its priorities the punishment of crime, the primacy of the victim and the protection of law-abiding society.

There will be many other measures, including new investments of federal money for crime prevention targeted toward at-risk youth.

We understand that not every child is born into a good home.

- homes where loving parents lead by example and teach right from wrong.

And all too often, even such youth – often at too young an age – get caught up with the wrong crowd.

Government cannot ensure that every child or every family will make the right choices. 

But we can facilitate the making of right choices. We can provide more opportunities for the making of right choices.

And that is exactly what we will do with our smart choices plan.

We will invest in community-based educational, cultural, sporting and vocational opportunities to provide both hope and support to youth at risk.

And we will also implement a national drug strategy that will equip our youth with the knowledge they need to reject the risks of a lifestyle of drugs.

Where Does the Opposition Stand?

Ladies and gentlemen, during the last election campaign, we heard a lot about cracking down on crime.

But for 13 years the Liberals and the other opposition parties opposed every measure to strength criminal justice and protect law-abiding Canadians.

So the question for the Opposition is simple. Do they support our direct measures to toughen criminal justice?

Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, the coming weeks and months will be active ones for our Government.

We know what we want to do. And we have a plan to do it.

We have made a decision to crack down on crime and we are going to stick to it.

But we are in a minority Parliament, and that means there are decisions that have to be made by the other parties, especially on the issue of crime.

Over the past 13 years, as we sat across from the Liberals, we watched them – and all too often the other opposition parties as well – oppose, time and time again, each and every criminal justice reform we brought forward.

You will remember that for the last government and its allies, as organized gang, gun and drug crime got worse, their priority was spending hundreds of millions of dollars, year after year, on a long-gun registry – a billion-dollar boondoggle to keep Canadians safe from duck hunters.

You will also remember, during the recent election campaign, how every one of these parties seemed to do a complete about-face and began talking tough on crime and the criminals who commit them.

Now I am a religious man, so I believe in conversion. Why, I even believe in death-bed conversion.

But I am looking for evidence.

Our clear agenda to crack down on crime will force the Liberals and others to take a stand.

We will bring in each measure in a separate bill.

Will they support mandatory minimum sentences for serious, violent and repeat crime, especially gun crime?

Will they work with us to put an end to house arrest?

And will they help us raise the age of consent in order to protect children?

We know where Canadians stand.

They are with us.

It’s now time for the Opposition to tell us where they stand.

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen, Canada’s new national government will keep its commitment to Canada’s communities.

Canadians have a right to live in safe streets and safe neighbourhoods.

We have promised to take action, and we will act on those promises.

In this minority Parliament, Canadians need to let all Members of Parliament know they want action. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, every Canadian should be able to live in a safe and vibrant community.

When one community suffers, the ripple effects are slowly felt across the country.

What sense of community can you have when people are fearful to walk the streets? 

When neighbours look upon each other with suspicion and unease?

When crimes are committed and the law looks the other way? 

This is not the Canada we inherited, not the Canada I knew as a boy, not the Canada that today’s generation deserves to grow up in.

We can do better.

And we will.

That is why our new national Government will move forward with actions aimed at cracking down on crime.

This is the commitment we made to Canadians during the election, and it is the commitment that we intend to deliver as Government.

As you know, however, our Government is in a minority position.

That is why we need this message delivered clearly to all of Canada’s Members of Parliament:

If you support mandatory minimum sentences…

If you support an end to house arrest…

And if you support raising the age of consent…

Call your Member of Parliament and tell them to get with the plan.

To be frank, after all the tough talk of the election campaign, to hinder the implementation of these long-overdue reforms would be inexcusable.

Together, we can tackle the growing problem of gun, gang and drug crime

And we can protect the Canadian way of life.

So to ensure that it becomes a reality, Canadians like yourselves must write, call, or email MPs to let them know that this isn’t just our priority, but your priority as well.

In closing, I’d like to reiterate my unshakeable belief that the best is yet to come for Manitoba and Winnipeg and for all parts of this great country.

In the weeks and months ahead, our Government is going to continue to move this country forward.

Together, I am confident that we can achieve great things.

Thank you very much.