Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my opening Member’s statement I mentioned that I was going to have some questions today for the Minister of Justice in regards to the new proposed crime bill and how it is going to affect our Youth Criminal Act as well as our diversion programs.
How is the new crime bill going to affect how our youth are treated in the court system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have done an analysis of Bill C10. Our analysis shows or we understand and believe that we will see some young offenders in custody for longer periods of time under Bill C10. One of the primary changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act under Bill C10, is it is changing to the main principles of the bill to include protection of society. In that we see some increases of sentences for young offenders by adding specific deterrence and denunciation principles of sentencing, expanding the definition of violent offenders, violent youth offenders may see more time in our facilities, and include behaviours that endanger life and safety of themselves and others. Our cursory analysis does show that we will likely see some increases within our youth facilities.
In respect to the theme day we had today, a lot of our drug dealers in the communities are bullying and getting our youth to sell drugs for them. In some cases, when it comes to drugs, you do tend to have violent crimes, so it is good to hear that any youth that are participating in this kind of behaviour are going to be starting to get sentenced as adults.
In regards to that diversion, I know we look at a lot of diversion programs. Is the Minister looking at the diversion programs in terms of sentencing our youth, or will they be put on the crime bill, as well, in terms of getting sentenced to jail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify one point. The amendments proposed by Bill C10 with respect to trying youth as adults, it only would apply when the Crown would be required to consider seeking adult sentences for things like murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault. Not every condition under any potential crime that they might commit, that there are going to be different penalties out there for youth involved in violent crime. There are, under the Criminal Code and changes to provisions around organized crime, particularly folks in drug selling and involving organized crime, there will be some changes there as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Like I said, drug dealers preying on our youth to sell their product for them and some cases when the youth do get sentenced, it is usually just a slap on the wrist or diversion to another program where they are let back out into society and they continue to repeat the same type of actions. I want to get commitment from the Minister that he will speak on our behalf to ensure that if the drug dealers aren’t getting, I wouldn’t say punished or convicted, then the youth should understand that by them participating in this type of action, they are going to get convicted under the same type of criminal convictions that an adult would if they were selling drugs, and harming our people in the community, and continuing to keep our society down and contributing to our problems. Will the Minister commit to speaking on behalf of people of the Northwest Territories that he will address drug dealing, in this case, with youth?
There is a lot that needs to be done. There is no question that drugs and alcohol in the Northwest Territories are a problem. The Department of Justice is trying to focus more on prevention and diversion rather than incarceration. The department is doing things like supporting the Not Us campaign, which we got real positive responses on.
In the day, those youth that are involved in violent crime, those individuals that are involved in organized crime will likely receive stiffer penalties under C10 and the changes to the YCJA. That doesn’t change the fact that we still want to focus on diversion. We want to actually keep people out of the system, by preventing the crime in the first place. I think there are better results from actually focusing on the root causes of the crime and dealing with that. Those individuals who do get involved, those and youth that do commit serious crimes, under Bill C10 will receive stiffer penalties. The department will continue to focus on prevention and trying to find solutions to the root causes of crime. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to diversion and keeping our youth out of the system, will the Minister commit to creating a territory-wide awareness campaign to youth to educate them on the consequences that, if they participate in drug dealing or other violent crimes when this new bill comes in, we can protect our youth so they don’t have to go through the system? Will he commit to creating a territory-wide awareness campaign so that our youth understand and know what they are getting into, and that we keep them out of the system and keep them living a healthy lifestyle? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it is a good suggestion. Once again, we do have the Not Us campaign and the Department of Health and Social Services have their campaigns as well. I am interested in working with my colleagues in Health and Social Services but also with Social Programs on this type of initiative. I would like to have more conversations to figure out what would be the best way to go forward with that.
In the meantime, we will continue to move forward with Not Us and allow the communities to design programs that work for themselves, rather than us telling them what the message should be. We will certainly have those conversations. I am looking forward to those conversations. In the meantime, we have Not Us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
