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Bernard Généreux

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
Conservative

Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup
Quebec
Voting Attendance: 68%
Expenses Last Quarter: $143,434.52

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 303 - Apr/19/24

Mr. Bernard Généreux (Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, CPC)

Apr/19/24 1:34:38 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-351

Madam Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to deliver a final reply in the debate on my private member's bill, Bill C-351, an act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act regarding maximum security offenders. I will not go into the details of the context surrounding the introduction of such a bill. I will simply point out that what prompted it was the news last June that serial killer Paul Bernardo had been transferred from a maximum-security prison to a medium-security one. It was news that shocked the public and forced the families and victims to relive their trauma. This bill seeks to ensure that maximum-security offenders remain in a maximum-security facility, where they deserve to be. I would once again like to thank my colleague from Niagara Falls, who introduced a similar bill, as well as a motion calling for the immediate cancellation of Bernardo's transfer. Unfortunately, his motion was defeated. I listened carefully to my colleagues' speeches, in the first hour of reading and today, and I have a few comments to make. My Liberal colleagues mentioned that we do not care about women. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Conservative Party has always stood with victims. Unfortunately, when it comes to dangerous offenders, the vast majority of victims are women. I also heard the Liberals say that we are using this bill to fearmonger. They falsely claim that we want to make people believe that offenders like Bernardo could end up being released. That is not the purpose of this bill at all. The probability that such a dangerous criminal would be out on release is extremely low. However, the fact that he was transferred from a maximum- to a medium-security prison is something we want to prevent. I repeat, the very simple goal of this bill is to ensure that such criminals, given their horrific actions, are kept in maximum-security prisons, not in institutions where they would receive much more generous privileges. Most importantly, we want to prevent the families of victims from having to relive a trauma that no one would want to experience. Other colleagues have also talked about rehabilitation. I heard someone say earlier that we do not believe in it. That is absolutely not the case. Our party does believe in rehabilitation, especially for young offenders. For some offences, a second chance is the way forward, but in the Bernardo case, for example, I am sure members will agree that rehabilitation is impossible. A second chance for such a monster is out of the question. We are talking about at least 1,000 inmates in Canada who are considered dangerous offenders. As evidence of the current government's soft-on-crime attitude, the response to an Order Paper question submitted by my colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo revealed that most of these offenders are serving their sentences in medium- or even minimum-security prisons. There are dangerous offenders in minimum-security institutions. That is what happens when a government does not have its priorities straight, when a government believes that the right thing to do is to offer dangerous criminals the least restrictive environment. That is what happened in 2019 with the passage of Bill C-83, which puts the comfort of criminals ahead of concern for victims' families. That is pure liberalism. That is the legacy of the Liberal government after nine years in power. On this side of the House, we stand by the victims and not the criminals. That is why I introduced this bill and I am proud of it. Where the Liberals have failed, we will succeed. We will restore common sense in our justice and correctional system.

627 words

Context: House Hansard - 257 - Nov/28/23

Mr. Bernard Généreux

Nov/28/23 5:48:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I just want to quote something that my colleague Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu said. Since he became a senator, he has been defending the rights of victims, particularly the rights of women. Right now, we know that women in Canada are being murdered on a regular basis. Crimes are being committed against individuals, especially women. We cannot allow that to happen. For eight years, the crime rate in Canada has been rising based on the new standards—

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Context: House Hansard - 257 - Nov/28/23

Mr. Bernard Généreux

Nov/28/23 5:46:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, if I understand my colleague's question correctly, he is telling us that the reason why the commissioner allowed Mr. Bernardo's transfer is that he demonstrated good behaviour over the past 30 years. If that is the case, then I do not see how staying in a maximum security prison would change his behaviour for the rest of his life. The reality is that the Bloc Québécois is siding with criminals instead of victims. I think that we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the families who experienced that trauma. The reality is that neither my colleague nor I experienced that trauma, so we likely cannot understand how these families feel. Let us put ourselves in those people's shoes for five minutes and think about what they went through. My colleague from Niagara Falls can tell us about it, because he supported those families. I can guarantee one thing. I would not want to have to go through all of that, and I would especially not want to have to relive the whole thing 25 or 30 years later.

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Member of Parliament

Bernard Généreux