QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Transit Safety
December 2, 2025
Despite the massive upsurge of violence on public transit across the country, with staggering increases of up to 300% in some cities, your government continues to claim that the situation is under control. However, assaults are on the rise, violent crime is well above prepandemic levels, there is a pervasive sense of insecurity among users, and the response capacity can obviously no longer keep up.
Leader, after 10 years under this government, public transit is an essential service that too many Canadians are afraid to use. I therefore ask you this in all sincerity: when your government finally stop improvising? When will it bring in a real national plan to make public transit safe again?
Senator Carignan, I think you were absent, but as I pointed out to your colleague, Senator Housakos, this government was elected just a few months ago. This is a new government, so your reference to the previous government is starting to sound a bit like a broken record. I would respectfully suggest that you defer to the good judgment of Canadians, who saw fit to give the current government a strong mandate in the last election.
You were in the chamber when the Minister of Justice was here last week. The minister made it very clear that the government plans to introduce amendments to the Criminal Code to impose harsher sentences for violent crimes of all kinds, especially now, when we are raising awareness of violence against women, and in general, so that Canadians feel safe everywhere in Canada.
It’s amusing to see a government leader appointed by the Trudeau government who can’t remember that exactly the same people have been elected again and again for almost 11 years now. In a document published in 2024, the Canadian Urban Transit Association called for a dedicated federal transit safety and security fund. It proposed a fund of at least $75 million per year to hire security staff. What is the government doing about this?
I’ll pick up on the first part of your question. Indeed, there has been continuity for the past 11 years, and it’s certainly because Canadians wanted it that way, Senator Carignan. It’s a simple principle called democracy.
As for the importance that the government places on preventing violent crimes, I think that the commitments made by the Minister of Justice in that regard speak for themselves.
