NEW LAWS TO FIGHT CRIME HAVE BEEN A LONG TIME COMING

All Canadians deserve to live in safe neighbourhoods.

Parents in Yorkton-Melville should not have to worry about letting
their kids outside to play and seniors should not be afraid to venture
out of their homes at night. In recent years, a lot of media attention
has focussed on the rising scourge of gang, gun and drug violence that
can paralyze neighbourhoods in cities and towns of all sizes.

While I don't subscribe to the politics of fearmongering, I do believe
that there are some real problems that deserve real action. The
previous federal government insisted on wearing rosecoloured glasses
and ignored the trends. Our government is cracking down on gun crime
with tough, new mandatory minimum sentences and tighter bail rules to
keep the worst offenders behind bars. The only practical way to reduce
gun crime is to target the criminals behind it.

Our government is going to take down other kinds of criminals as well.
Canadians have long complained that our old drunk-driving laws had too
many loopholes, particularly when it came to drivers impaired with
drugs. Drivers who abuse alcohol or drugs pose a threat to innocent
people. We put in place tough legislation that now makes it possible
to catch drug-impaired drivers and hold them accountable for their
actions.

We are also taking drug dealers to task with changes to Canada's drug
crime laws. The government will ensure that those who produce or sell
illegal drugs face mandatory jail time. We are investing in more
police so that grow-ops, methlabs and other drug producers will be
busted before they do more harm.

The criminal gangs who run car-theft operations are also in for a
surprise. Under our new vehicle theft legislation, it will be a crime
even to tamper with a car's vehicle identification number. We are
making it much harder for criminal gangs to resell stolen Canadian
cars.

This government believes that too many violent or dangerous young
offenders are acting as if their tender age leaves them above the law.
We are changing the Youth Criminal Justice Act that will toughen the
consequences for these kinds of crimes and send a clear message to
criminals of all ages - you will be held accountable for your acts.

Many vulnerable Canadians, including seniors, have been victimized by
credit card fraud and other forms of identity theft. Canada's old laws
were out of date and could not keep up with the sophisticated
organized crime rings behind identity theft. We are modernizing
Canada's identity theft laws to make these con-artists easier to convict.

Some political parties choose to believe that crime is merely a social
problem, and we shouldn't hold people accountable for the choices they
make. Some opposition politicians have gone so far as playing
political games by trying to obstruct many of these badly needed new
laws from ever seeing the light of day. This approach is misguided and
leaves thousands of vulnerable Canadians at risk for no good reason.
Our government is determined to make sure that doesn't happen.