Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers responsible for Justice
NEWS RELEASE – QUEBEC REAFFIRMS ITS LEADERSHIP IN THE AREA OF JUSTICE
MONTREAL, December 5, 1997 -- At the conclusion of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Justice held on December 4 and 5 in Montreal, the Minister of Justice, Serge Ménard and the Minister of Public Security, Pierre Bélanger, reviewed the results of their participation in the meeting.
Improving Public Confidence in the Justice System
The Ministers noted a discrepancy between the public's belief that crime is on the rise and the reality of continually falling crime rates. The most obvious consequence of this misconception is the public's demand for a harsher judicial system.
For the Quebec ministers, this phenomenon can be explained in part by the fact that information given to the public does not reflect the daily activities taking place in our courthouses. The public generally only hears about the most serious cases and the most spectacular sentences and receives only part of the information on which a legal decision in any given case is based.
This observation is confirmed by the work of Anthony N. Doob, a University of Toronto professor of criminology who in 1995 published a report entitled "Criminal Justice Reform in a Hostile Climate." The report's conclusions are enlightening: when the public relies on information about a crime published in newspapers, 63% of those questioned consider that the sentence imposed was too lenient; this number falls to 19% when the same individuals base their opinions on the documents made available to the court.
The Quebec ministers insisted on pointing out to their colleagues that politicians have a role to play in presenting a more realistic picture of the current state of our legal system. This is quite important as Quebec would like to consider putting in place more appropriate crime punishment alternatives.
Exerting its Authority in Assisting Crime Victims
Quebec is in favour of sharing information and working together with the federal government and the other provinces on any issues likely to improve the situation of crime victims, in accordance with each jurisdiction's constitutional powers and the rights of the accused to a full answer and defence.
Quebec intends to continue to take full responsibility for victim assistance and objects to any initiatives that could put pressure on how it exercises its authority in this area. The province stressed to the federal government the immediate need to change the provision for a victim-fine surcharge in the Criminal Code and asked the Canadian government to share some of the funds collected through the confiscation of the proceeds of crime with the provinces.
Demonstrating its Leadership in Crime Prevention
Quebec indicated that it was responsible for taking the lead in the area of crime prevention in the province with community organizations, municipalities and all other partners involved.
There could be no question of the federal government dealing directly with community organizations in Quebec or contributing money directly to municipalities without Quebec's approval. For these reasons, it advocated a Canada-Quebec agreement providing for the transfer of money to the Quebec government that it would receive for crime prevention projects targeted by the federal initiative.
For the purpose of granting moneys allocated to Quebec under the federal initiative, Quebec demanded that the federal government distribute the $30 million on a pro-rated demographic basis, which would mean almost 25% for Quebec ($7.5 million).
Pointing Out its Exclusive Jurisdiction with Regard to Children
Quebec shares the objectives of better welfare for children in our society and considers that improving children's lives requires an intersectoral approach involving health care, social services, education, income security, justice and other sectors of government.
Over the past few years, Quebec has acted on its own to reach these objectives by improving its health and welfare and income security policies, by implementing a system to determine and collect child support and, just recently, by announcing a new family policy. It is unclear how a federal, national or Canada-wide strategy could add to our efforts, particularly since with the provinces these federal initiatives would be limited to its exclusive areas of jurisdiction.
Quebec considers itself solely responsible in all the sectors in question and continues to vigilantly protect its jurisdiction in these matters. The province considers that it has its own needs and priorities in the area of child support and knows how to meet them.
Quebec is thus not participating in the National Children's Agenda and has no intention of being subject to any Canada-wide child support objective.
Denouncing the Federal Government's Inconsistency Regarding Young Offenders
Finally, Quebec vigorously denounced the federal government's lack of consistency regarding young offenders.
Quebec pointed out that in November 1995, the federal Minister of Justice had recognized that Quebec was exceptional for the emphasis it was placing on rehabilitation outside the legal system.
Quebec warned the federal government to maintain consistency between its actions and its words. Not only is it envisaging new legislative changes leading to a greater repression of young offenders, it also appears not to want to put an end to the historical inequity in the financial contribution paid to Quebec for enforcing the Young Offenders Act.
For example, Quebec receives barely 18% of federal contributions although it is home to almost 25% of the Canadian population. If we calculate the amount of money it should have received based on the proportion of young people in the province, Quebec estimates that it has been short-changed by $77.44 million over the past eight years. Ironically, this federal underfunding is due to Quebec's more progressive approach to the problem as social-preventive costs were not eligible under the cost-sharing plan.
Quebec believes that this is another example of federalism that hides behind hollow rhetoric its inability to respect the specific needs of the people of Quebec, whose delinquency and recidivism rates among young people are the lowest in the country.
| Sources: | Christiane Lussier Office of the Minister of Justice (418) 643-4210 Esther Boily |