- Member of Parliament
- Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council
- Conservative
- St. Albert—Edmonton
- Alberta
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $119,185.60
- Government Page
- Feb/26/24 3:44:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise to present a petition signed by Canadians.
The petitioners observe that, for the past eight years, the Liberal government has consistently put the rights of criminals ahead of the rights of victims. This includes when it failed to respond to the Supreme Court's unjust Bissonnette decision. This decision struck down a common-sense Harper law that gave judges the discretion to apply consecutive parole ineligibility periods to murderers convicted of multiple murders, to take into account each life lost.
The petitioners call on Parliament, as a modest response to the Bissonnette decision, to pass Bill S-281. This would prevent convicted murderers from applying for parole year after year once they complete their minimum sentence.
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- Feb/9/24 1:50:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague, the member for Oshawa, for championing the bill. In his tenure as a member of Parliament, he has consistently been a champion for the rights of victims. The bill is common sense.
One of the recurring themes I have heard from the families of victims is that they feel that they do not have support and they do not have information, long after the trial and conviction of the perpetrator who took the life of their loved one. Could the member comment on that?
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- May/8/23 2:54:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is spreading misinformation, saying that the member for Wellington—Halton Hills was briefed by CSIS two years ago about his family being targeted by a Beijing diplomat.
The Prime Minister knows this to be untrue. In fact, it was the Prime Minister who knew about it for two years, did nothing and kept the member in the dark. Now that he is resorting to victim blaming, how much lower can the Prime Minister go?
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- Feb/16/23 10:08:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition initiated by my constituents Mike and Dianne Ilesic, whose son Brian, along with two other victims, was brutally murdered in an armed robbery. A fourth victim survived but sustained permanent head injuries.
Mike and Dianne felt some sense of relief believing that they would never have to face Brian's killer at a parole hearing, after he was the first mass killer to be sentenced under a law passed by the previous Harper Conservative government that gave judges the discretion to impose consecutive parole ineligibility periods for mass killers to take into account each life lost. However, that law was struck down unjustly by the Supreme Court last year. Now Brian's killer could be eligible for parole in just 14 short years. Mike and Dianne were alarmed when the Minister of Justice failed to respond to the decision and even went so far as to say that he respected the decision.
Mike and Dianne, along with petitioners, are calling on the Minister of Justice to, for once, stand up for victims and respond to this decision by invoking the notwithstanding clause so that families like theirs never have to endure a parole hearing, and so that the worst of the worst mass killers in this country remain behind bars, where they belong.
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- Feb/3/23 11:39:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the current Prime Minister, the bail system is broken. The Liberals implemented soft-on-crime catch-and-release bail policies that put violent and repeat offenders out on the streets and endanger public safety. Everyone but the Liberals seems to recognize what a disaster this has been. All 13 premiers, police associations and victims are calling on the Liberals to fix their broken bail system.
Why will they not?
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- Dec/9/22 10:43:49 a.m.
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- Re: Bill C-9
Madam Speaker, yes, I believe that amendment is an improvement to the bill.
Any time there is an opportunity to have input from the victim, it is a step in the right direction. That is important, and we must continue to do work to ensure that victims are heard throughout our court process and, in this instance, a judicial complaints process.
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- Jun/9/22 5:29:49 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, respectfully, my position regarding this bill is that it needs to be scrapped. It needs to be defeated and the government needs to go back to the drawing board.
On the issue of systemic racism and the impacts the criminal justice system has on marginalized Canadians, yes, it is an issue that needs to be addressed. One of the things that was noted at committee is that many of the victims, in fact a disproportionate number of victims, also come from racialized and vulnerable communities. What we need to make a priority is putting victims first, and this bill puts victims last and criminals first.
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- Jun/9/22 5:26:49 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, I do not know how we are going to make anyone safe by eliminating mandatory jail time for serious firearms and drug-related offences.
With respect to conditional sentencing, which was the main purpose of her testimony, she noted that it is going to have a very negative impact on women because those predators are going to be serving time in the victims' communities. On top of that, it is often difficult to supervise these people, which again is putting vulnerable people at risk.
Very simply put, this bill from start to finish is a badly drafted bill that gets it precisely backwards. It is why we are going to continue to fight it.
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- May/30/22 2:48:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Brian Ilesic and two other victims were murdered in an armed robbery. They were shot point-black in the back of the head. A fourth victim survived with serious brain injuries. Brian's parents, my constituents Mike and Dianne, feel completely betrayed that this cold-blooded killer will be eligible for parole years sooner, along with other mass killers.
What assurance can the Minister of Justice provide, aside from empty words, for Mike and Dianne and other grieving families in the face of this unjust decision by the Supreme Court?
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- May/6/22 11:12:44 a.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, every day, four Canadians are killed at the hands of an impaired driver, yet the Liberal government wants to go soft on impaired drivers with its soft-on-crime Bill C-5. The bill would allow criminals convicted of impaired driving causing death to serve their sentence from home.
At the justice committee, the director of victim services of MADD Canada characterized Bill C-5 as hurtful and harmful to victims of impaired driving. The same is true for victims of sexual assault, kidnapping and human trafficking, given Bill C-5's reckless expansion of house arrest for these and other serious offences.
While the Liberals stand up for criminals, Conservatives will continue to stand up for victims by fighting Bill C-5.
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- Mar/4/22 11:11:31 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, the Liberal government is demonstrating that victims of crime are a low priority for it. For the past half year, the position of victims ombudsman has remained vacant. The victims ombudsman is an integral resource for victims, including addressing their complaints and bringing forward recommendations on how to improve laws and programs to better support victims.
After half a year, the justice minister's statement that this position will be filled in due course is unacceptable. This, after all, is the same government that previously left this position vacant for nearly a year.
Victims deserve a voice and they deserve it now. It is time for the government to end this inexcusable delay and forthwith appoint a victims ombudsman.
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