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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

May/23/24 9:31:16 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, under the current process, the minister relies on a recommendation from the Criminal Conviction Review Group. That is the system we have now.

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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24

Hon. Arif Virani (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)

May/23/24 9:30:17 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the Delisle case in Quebec highlights the importance of changing our system regarding the way investigations are conducted following a bad conviction. That is why we must promote Bill C-40, in order to change our system and discover more cases that are at issue, such as that of Mr. Delisle.

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Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24

Hon. Arif Virani

May/23/24 9:18:02 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-40

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-40 represents a staggering change in the way we envisage wrongful convictions in this country. It would provide a new mechanism, a review commission, which would have the tools and resources to go out and find the cases. In the same time period, in the U.K., within a 20-year time frame, about 500 cases were unearthed that dealt with wrongful convictions. In the same time period in Canada, 27 cases were found. I know the member to be a strong advocate of the indigenous community in this country. Among those 27 cases in Canada, five involved Black or indigenous men. Given the severe overrepresentation of Black and indigenous people in our justice system, that is a completely disproportionate statistic that is statistically improbable. Does it mean that, in the U.K., they are wrongfully convicting more people than we are in Canada? No, I think it means that we are not finding the cases here in Canada. The bill, unfortunately, was obstructed at the justice committee, but it has now finally left the justice committee. Through it, we have the ability to make a fundamental change in how we deal with wrongful convictions in this country, providing the resources and the outreach capability to find the cases and bring innocent men and women to justice in this country, something that is long overdue.

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Context: House Hansard - 291 - Mar/19/24

Hon. Arif Virani (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)

Mar/19/24 3:13:06 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I respect the member opposite, but what I respect most of all is that he actually was not here when we were voting on Bill C-75. That piece of legislation actually enhanced the penalties on summary conviction for auto theft, something that most of his colleagues voted against. He was not here, so I will excuse him on that one. On the issue of mandatory minimum penalties, there is a guy named Ben Perrin. He might remember that individual. He used to be the lead adviser to a guy named Stephen Harper. Ben Perrin has been on the record as saying that mandatory minimum penalties were a gross error, a miscarriage of justice, and perpetuate systemic racism. That is why we reversed them. I wish these guys would get on board.

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SoVote

Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada

Hon. Arif Virani