The ''Safe Streets and Communities Act'' is a bill that was passed by the

41st Canadian Parliament The 41st Canadian Parliament was in session from June 2, 2011 to August 2, 2015, with the membership of its House of Commons having been determined by the results of the 2011 federal election held on May 2, 2011. Parliament convened on June 2, 2 ...

154–129 on March 12, 2012. When

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

re-convened in September 2011, the

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

introduced the ''Safe Streets and Communities Act'', an

omnibus bill An omnibus bill is a proposed law that covers a number of diverse or unrelated topics. ''Omnibus'' is derived from Latin and means "to, for, by, with or from everything". An omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a ...

of nine separate measures. The measures include replacing the pardon system with 'record suspensions',

mandatory minimum sentence Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term for certain crimes, commonly serious and violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are inst ...

s for certain sexual offences and mandatory minimum penalties for certain drug offences, making it illegal to make sexually explicit information available to a child, increasing prison sentences for marijuana offences, reducing the ability of judges to sentence certain offenders to

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

, allowing immigration officers to deny work permits to foreigners who are at risk of being sexually exploited, and enabling Canadians to sue state sponsors of terrorism for losses due to an act of terrorism. A particularly contentious aspect of the bill was the proposed enhancement of powers given to government authorities to monitor online communications, but this proposal was abandoned after an online petition opposing those measures garnered over 70,000 signatures. One of the smaller bills incorporated into this legislation was Bill C-23B, formerly called "Eliminating Pardons for Serious Offences." This section made significant changes to the country's pardon laws. Part 3 of the bill replaced the term "pardon" with "Record Suspension" and eliminated pardons for those with Schedule 1 criminal offences on their record or those with more than three offences each carrying a sentence of two years or more. The bill caused much controversy. While the

Canadian Police Association The Canadian Police Association (CPA) is an advocacy and fundraising organization that is also a registered lobbyist with the Canadian government. The CPA represents Canadian police officers. It is divided into 27 regional chapters at municipal, ...

said the bill would work towards keeping communities more safe, it added it was concerned about the cost. The

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

government said it would refuse to pay for the bill, calling it a short-term " Band-Aid solution." The

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

government would also refuse to pay.

Texan Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

conservatives Judge John Creuzot, Republican Representative Jerry Madden, and Marc Levin also spoke out against the bill; according to Madden, "It's a very expensive thing to build new prisons and, if you build them, I guarantee you they will come. They'll be filled, OK? Because people will send them there."

References

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External links

Safe Streets and Communities Act
from the Parliament of Canada website
LegalEase podcast
discusses the Conservatives' Omnibus Safe Streets and Communities Act from a legal perspective Canadian federal legislation 41st Canadian Parliament 2012 in Canadian law Canadian criminal law Omnibus legislation