Thursday, October 26, 2005

OTTAWA – After a seven-year legislative battle to disallow the use of conditional sentencing for violent and serious crimes, MP Jay Hill said he is offended that the legislation introduced by the government today is a phony watered-down version of his private member’s bill, C-257.

“Killers and rapists will continue to be eligible to avoid jail and serve their sentence in the comfort of their livingroom,” stated Hill. “The Justice Minister’s new ‘presumption’ clause for conditional sentencing changes nothing. It simply means that judges now have to write a note explaining why they let killers go free.”

Hill, the MP for Prince George-Peace River and the Official Opposition House Leader, first introduced a private member’s motion in March 1998 to disallow the use of conditional sentencing for a specific list of serious offences, including murder, manslaughter, rape and drug trafficking. He has introduced a private member’s bill to restrict conditional sentencing in every Parliament since.

"Just this September, Minister Cotler personally assured me that he would be the one to correct this miscarriage of justice and it offends me that this is the best he could come up with," stated Hill.

Shortly after the Liberal government’s conditional sentencing provision, Section 742.1 of the Criminal Code, took effect on September 3, 1996, courts across Canada began handing down conditional sentences to those convicted of murder and sex offences. Hill’s demands to reform the provision began after the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled in August 1997 that “if Parliament had intended to exclude certain offences from consideration under Section 742.1, it could have done so in clear language”.

“Canadians are demanding real justice reforms, like Bill C-257 and the type of legislation advocated by the late Chuck Cadman. Instead, the Justice Minister is giving us phony pre-election publicity stunts that exploit and intentionally distort well-intentioned legislation tabled by MPs on behalf of their constituents.”

-30-

For more information, please contact:
Jay Hill, M.P. (613) 947-4524 or (250) 787-119