Senator Boisvenu: Senator Gold, the floodgates have been opened. In Quebec, nearly a dozen sex offenders, arms traffickers and drug traffickers have been sentenced to house arrest. Yesterday, someone who tried to kill his friend with a screwdriver was sent home to serve 20 months in his living room.

Minister Lametti said that he is trying to ease congestion in the court system, but instead this is emptying out our prisons.

This morning, the federal Minister for Sport once again encouraged athletes who have been the victim of abuse to report their attacker. Senator Gold, my question is fairly simple. Do you agree that, in 2023, we should be allowing rapists, men who assault women, to serve their sentence from the comfort of their own home rather than in prison?

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, the Journal de Montréal reported that Quebec’s justice minister sent a letter to Minister Lametti denouncing the measures in Bill C-5 that allow for house arrest instead of prison sentences for sexual offenders. I would like to quote from the Journal de Montréal, which reports that Minister Jolin-Barrette said the following:

 . . . the return of conditional sentences for certain crimes is “a major step backwards in the fight against sexual violence.” He adds that this law “goes against the efforts of all justice system stakeholders to prevent victims from being reluctant to speak up or file a complaint.”

Wondering what kind of message this legislation sends, Mr. Jolin-Barrette is asking Minister Lametti to “remedy the situation immediately.”

When will the minister remedy this situation?