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Alex Ruff

Member of Parliament
Member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians
Conservative

Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound
Ontario
Voting Attendance: 67%
Expenses Last Quarter: $91,173.06

Government Page

Mr. Alex Ruff (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, CPC)

Feb/2/23 6:31:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am here tonight to elaborate on something that is related to our opposition day motion today. It was a question I put to the government back in November about violent crime, Bill C-5 and the current Liberal government's soft-on-crime approach, which is not doing anything to make Canada safer. In particular, I talked about how violent crime has risen 32% since the Liberals formed government, which equates to over 124,000 more violent crimes since they have been in government. I talked about local headlines of people “arrested again” for participation in a criminal organization, failure to comply with a probation order, 11 counts of knowledge of possession of a firearm while prohibited, two counts of disobeying a court order and two counts of breaching a weapons prohibition. I am going to provide more local statistics from my own riding, because this is a prevalent problem. We see the media coverage all the time in our urban centres, but this problem of repeat offenders committing crimes is pervasive right across Canada. Here is something from December 16, 2022, in my riding: “Charges laid in drive-by shooting”. Charges included possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose, careless use of firearm, assault with a weapon and discharging a firearm with intent. The key point is possession of a firearm contrary to a probation order. This individual also faces an attempted murder charge after a shooting in my riding back in August. Here is another one: “Man suffers fractured skull in Hanover hammer attack”. I know the Prime Minister likes to speak about banning assault weapons. Well, guess what. A hammer used in an assault is an assault weapon, and good luck trying to ban all the hammers in the country. I do not think that is going to achieve much for public safety either. This happened at a convenience store. There were seven different charges, including several counts of breaching probation. I have another one here, just miles from my own farm. It required significant resources from our law enforcement in the local area. A 53-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man were each charged with countless drug trafficking issues. The woman was additionally charged with two counts of disobeying a court order and failure to comply with a probation order. The man was additionally charged with two counts of breach of a weapons prohibition. The fourth example is of a man in my riding. He has 25 weapons charges, with 15 different counts of a restricted or prohibited firearm and two breaches of a firearms prohibition. Finally, I have one more example that required multiple police units to be involved. A 40-year-old man, a 63-year-old woman and a 24-year-old woman all got drug charges, and one was in possession of a firearm contrary to a prohibition order. What is the government's solution? It removed mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders, including 10 of the 12 that were introduced by two former Liberal prime ministers, Trudeau senior and Chrétien. I do not know what the Liberal government had so wrong back in those days, but now we have seen every premier in this country table a letter to the government demanding bail reform. We also have police groups calling for stricter rules against these violent repeat offenders. When are the Liberals going to repeal portions of Bill C-75 and Bill C-5 and stop targeting law-abiding firearms owners, sport shooters and farmers?

598 words

Context: House Hansard - 85 - Jun/9/22

Mr. Alex Ruff (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, CPC)

Jun/9/22 4:57:31 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-5

Madam Speaker, I have a two-part question for the member. The first part is that I agree with him that we need to do more for mental health and addictions, especially within our criminal system, so I would just like the member to explain where in Bill C-5 the Liberals address the needed resources for mental health and addictions. Where in the bill does it state that? The second part is that the member talks about these mandatory minimums being done by previous Conservative governments. When I look at the table of the 12 mandatory minimums that are being addressed in Bill C-5, there are only two of them that were brought in by Prime Minister Harper. One was brought in by Prime Minister Trudeau senior, and the other nine by Prime Minister Chrétien. Could the member allude to how this is tied to the previous Conservative government, when in fact the vast majority of mandatory minimums that are being proposed to be dropped in this legislation were actually done by previous Liberal governments?

179 words

Context: House Hansard - 32 - Feb/16/22

Mr. Alex Ruff

Feb/16/22 6:47:47 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-5

Madam Speaker, that was kind of a long-winded answer when “yes” was all I was looking for. I wish the parliamentary secretary could have answered the question in question period. It would have saved us all a lot of time. That being said, I would like to correct him. He talked about the failed Conservative policies, but the 14 or so mandatory minimums being removed are all ones that were brought in by former prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien, and not anything that was brought in under former prime minister Stephen Harper. These are Liberal mandatory minimums being taken off the books. Just to go to the member's whole point in his concluding statement, can he provide an extenuating circumstance of why someone found guilty of producing schedule I or II drugs, i.e., heroin, cocaine, fentanyl or crystal meth, should be let off as not a serious crime?

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Member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians

Alex Ruff