Mandatory Isn’t Optional
Ottawa, ON – Melissa Lantsman, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, released the following statement on Liberal Bill C-16, the Protecting Victims Act:
“After a decade of catch-and-release Liberal bail, repealing mandatory minimums, and other hug-a-thug laws, Canadians are understandably scared. Since 2015, human trafficking has increased 84 per cent, sexual assaults are up almost 76 per cent, and violent crime is up almost 55 per cent.
“Banning deepfakes of intimate partners will keep Canadians, especially women, safe from these non-consensual intimate images being created and shared. We’re glad the government has adopted the proposal in Michelle Rempel Garner’s Bill C-216 to do exactly that. It’s also good news that provisions from the same bill to bring in mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse material have also been taken up, helping keep our kids safe from the most despicable crimes.
“Similarly, we were pleased to find that Shadow Minister for Public Safety Frank Caputo’s calls to make the murder of an intimate partner automatically first-degree have been heard. And while the Liberals sadly opposed Tim Uppal’s three-year mandatory minimum sentence for all forms of extortion, introducing an aggravating factor for sextortion specifically is a step in the right direction, though not far enough.
“Unfortunately, despite these positive additions, C-16 egregiously continues the Liberals’ soft-on-crime agenda by empowering judges to ignore literally every mandatory prison sentence in the Criminal Code, other than murder and treason. Liberals are trying to allow judges to ignore them for aggravated sexual assault with a gun, human trafficking, and multiple violent firearms offences, including extortion with a firearm, weapons trafficking, drive-by shootings with a restricted or prohibited firearm, and more.
“Parliament set mandatory minimums for these heinous crimes for a reason, but if Liberals allow judges to ignore them, there will be nothing ‘mandatory’ about it. Period. The passage of this provision would be a total abrogation of our duty as elected representatives to keep our communities safe.
“Conservatives will never vote for lighter sentences for serious offenders. The Liberals must immediately split off this poison pill so we can get to work making this bill better and keeping Canadians safe.”