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Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada

Hon. Arif Virani

  • Member of Parliament
  • Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada
  • Liberal
  • Parkdale—High Park
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 64%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $120,537.19

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 11:05:07 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-5 
Mr. Speaker, I would indicate that some of these questions might be best put at committee of the whole to the Minister of Health and the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, who will be here next Wednesday in a similar format. I would also reiterate that, under Bill C-5, changes were implemented to encourage alternative responses to simple possession.
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 9:35:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the current process is one we have been using for a number of years. We want to change it with a commission independent of the government—
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 9:32:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Delisle's situation highlights the fact that we need to change the process and avoid—
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:49:02 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-63 
Madam Chair, I would say that we can start by moving with pace on Bill C-63. It talks about the fact that hate crimes are up 130% over the last five years in this country. We know that the hatred people are exposed to online has real-world consequences. Look no further than the trials of the individuals who were killed at the Quebec City mosque and the trials of the Afzaal family, who were killed in London, Ontario. How do we cure this? We take a Supreme Court definition of hatred and entrench it in law. That is something that law enforcement has asked us for. Again, I hope the members opposite are listening. Law enforcement and police officers have asked us for these changes because they want to facilitate the work of their hate crimes units in identifying what is happening and laying charges for what is happening. By enhancing penalties under the Criminal Code, by entrenching a definition of hatred in the Canadian Human Rights Act that facilitates discrimination complaints for online hate speech and by ensuring that we are having this content addressed by social media platforms, we can address this at multiple angles. This is critical toward keeping people safe, now more than ever, when hatred is on the rise, whether it is the anti-Semitism the member just spoke about, whether it is the Islamophobia we have seen with such fatal consequences, whether it is attacks towards the LGBTQ2 community or whether it is attacks against indigenous people in the Prairies. This is rife right now. The time to act is now, not at some future date, to keep Canadians safe. This must to be a priority for every parliamentarian here. Does that mean that we have the perfect bill? Absolutely, it does not mean that. I am open to amendments. We need to get this bill to the justice committee so that we can hear from experts about how a good bill can be strengthened further.
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:25:45 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the important piece about bail is ensuring that we are making bail changes to ensure that serious violent repeat offenders—
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:21:26 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the legislative changes we are making target those who use violence. This member has already said that he opposes changing the penalty for people who use violence—
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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 7:32:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the changes that have been made reflect a comprehensive questionnaire that looks at the lived experience of the individuals. We have put an emphasis on women, bilingualism and diversity. That has resulted in a level of appointments where 54% are women, and there have been 730 appointments so far. The previous government's track record was 30%.
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Context: House Hansard - 302 - Apr/18/24
Hon. Arif Virani (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)
  • Apr/18/24 3:03:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just to make things very clear for this member's constituents, when Bill C‑75 was before the House, we proposed that the sentence for auto theft be increased from 18 months to two years. This member and all of his colleagues voted against that. We are not just going to change the Criminal Code in this budget. We are also going to change the sentences for money laundering in the Criminal Code. The member and all of his colleagues have already said that they are going to once again vote against this. It is a bit difficult to understand where he is coming from on this.
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Context: House Hansard - 170 - Mar/21/23
Mr. Arif Virani
  • Mar/21/23 11:01:44 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can say that we are all aware of the fact that there were serious threats to and serious violations of human rights around the world during the two centuries my colleague mentioned. We must not, however, lose sight of the fact that change is occurring in terms of rights, legislation and culture relating to human rights protection, here in Canada and especially elsewhere in the world. That is what needs to be reinforced in our legislation, goals and principles, and that is what we will promote with the soon-to-be-tabled bill from the Minister of Labour. It is a rather complex but important issue because human rights must be protected and the kinds of violations to which the member is referring need to be eliminated.
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