The answer is not to throw away a child's life
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is coming through with an election-time promise to crack down on youth crime. Changes to Canada’s Youth Act are being proposed in order to further ensure that the system has an easier time charging, convicting and sentencing our youth in trouble. The proposed changes are being referred to as Sébastien’s Law, named after Sébastien Lacasse, who was killed in 2004. It was decided that Sébastien’s 17 year old killer was too dangerous to be tried as a youth and was tried and sentenced as an adult.
Some of the changes include:
1. Easier adult sentencing for violent youth offenders
2. A full disclosure of the alleged violent offender’s identity
3. Previous court sanctions can be taken into account for new sentencing
4. Irresponsible behavior becomes a chargeable youth offense
It has been officially determined by the Canadian senate, that juveniles are different from adults and therefore should be subjected to an alternative justice system. The rules set out in the original Youth Act are there to provide the benefit of an easy recovery for young offenders after being charged with a crime. Right now, identities can only be disclosed at the request of the crown, and only if the young offender poses a serious threat to the community. This allows for many young offenders to start fresh at 18, and not be plagued and judged by mistakes from their past.
Yet again, this is another blatant example of how the federal government tries its hardest to provide a false sense of security to its people. The new proposed amendments to the Youth Act will not decrease youth crime; on the contrary, we are making the juvenile rehabilitation process even harder. Should these proposed amendments become official, we are only tightening the gap between the differences in the adult and juvenile justice systems. The long term results of this will only lead to a larger number of hardened career criminals. Most operating with a sense that they have had no other path in life because of those harsh, determining judgments imposed on them in their youth.
