While the vast majority of Canadian youths are productive members of society, the time has come to deal with those who have learned to merely thumb their collective nose at the legal authorities.

Disrespect for the law appears to be growing among Canadian youth, and the blame may be shared by parents, educators and our legal system. When deterrents for misbehaviour are absent from the home, it becomes the responsibility of the state to take care of youthful law-breakers. It is essential to equip our legal system with fair and realistic tools that will dissuade youth from becoming repeat violators. If young people demonstrate that their reform isn’t an option, we need a mechanism to remove them from our midst for our own safety and security.

This summer, the Hon. Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, has been soliciting opinions from across the country on how youths charged with crimes should be processed. The consultation paper, Pre-Trial Detention Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is designed to shed new light on how the justice system can prevent youth from re-offending. Our government will examine the results of this comprehensive review of the pre-trial detention and release provisions for youth. The paper was prompted by recent events and research findings, as well as concerns raised by correctional experts, judges, academics, practitioners, and provincial and territorial governments.

We will be looking closely at various recommendations that involve:

• reasons for the apparent increase under the Youth Criminal Justice Act in the percentage of young persons detained by police;
• the basis on which young persons are detained or released by police;
• reasons for the large provincial variation in the use of pre-trial detention by police;
• provincial and local policies and guidelines to assist police officers in making detention and release decisions;
• the extent to which young persons are detained by police and then released prior to appearing before a justice; and
• the enforcement by police of conditions of release.

This is a complicated area involving the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and fundamental principles of justice. The government has a clear interest in ensuring that those who have been charged with offences are brought to justice, and that they do not flee or cause serious harm to society while awaiting trials. At the same time, we recognize the measures to guard against arbitrary detention and for reasonable bail which are respected both in our Bill of Rights and the Charter.

This government is dedicated to probing every aspect of youth crime and we want to do what we can to reduce crime committed by young people.

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