Sénateur Claude Carignan

(An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act).
Hon. Claude Carignan (Deputy Leader of the Government): Honourable senators, to govern is to choose between various options to prevent crime and make our streets safer. First, I want to make a few comments on the gun registry.

Between population aging, the collapse of the stock market, near-zero interest rates, and higher life expectancies, will our children be able to afford our old age pensions?

Where are we, exactly?

Around 1970, when the retirement age was set at 65, life expectancy in Canada was 72 years. This meant that pension payments would theoretically last for seven years. Today, with our life expectancy at 81 years, retirement will span 16 years. This is good news, of course. But it does have consequences.

You have no doubt heard or read about the opposition’s attacks on minimum sentences and on Bill C- 30, which would adapt the investigative powers of police services to fight cybercrime. My purpose today is not to take a position for or against either of these proposals but instead to highlight two contradictions that are rather embarrassing for the Liberals.

In all the discussion surrounding minimum sentencing, I was surprised to read in the House of Commons Debates the following statement by a Liberal MP,” I remember that it was a Liberal minister of justice who brought in the whole concept of mandatory minimums, which at the revolving door of the Conservatives’ press circle was as if it was invented by them.”. This comment piqued my curiosity, so I did a bit of historical research on the introduction of minimum sentences in Canada’s Criminal Code.

In all the discussion surrounding minimum sentencing, I was surprised to read in the House of Commons Debates the following statement by a Liberal MP,” I remember that it was a Liberal minister of justice who brought in the whole concept of mandatory minimums, which at the revolving door of the Conservatives’ press circle was as if it was invented by them.”. This comment piqued my curiosity, so I did a bit of historical research on the introduction of minimum sentences in Canada’s Criminal Code.