QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Crime Prevention
May 29, 2025
Senator Gold, this month, the ongoing culture of harassment and abuse by those with authority in prisons caused a prison guard in Joyceville to take his life. If this is what staff experience, we can only imagine what prisoners experience.
Freedom of information requests have also revealed billing fraud by government contractors that cost the Communications Security Establishment and, ultimately, Canadians over $325,000.
The Speech from the Throne referenced the government’s intention to get tougher on those who have committed multiple crimes. These bail and other proposed measures too often lead not to meaningful accountability but to the scooping up of poor, racialized — particularly Indigenous and Black — and mentally ill folks. Will the government lead by example and investigate and hold to account such repeated and unaddressed situations of assaults, harassment and fraud involving the government and those with whom they do business?
Thank you for your question, for your continued work on this subject and for raising this deeply troubling and distressing case.
This government is committed to addressing issues of fraud, waste and harassment in the workplace and elsewhere. In that regard, I have every confidence that the government will take the appropriate steps to address these issues.
Thank you, Senator Gold. What concrete steps is the government taking to ensure any proposed criminal law measures are effective and evidence-based, and will the government commit to sharing its findings with the public?
This government has announced a series of measures to improve the criminal law in certain areas, such as addressing the terrible issue of home invasions and the impact that has on families, a renewed focus on car theft and measures in the Criminal Code to make bail harder to get for repeat offenders charged with committing those crimes, along with crimes of human trafficking and drug smuggling. I have every confidence this government will continue to base its decisions in these matters upon evidence, including the use of disaggregated data.
