Library of Parliament Legislative Summary on Proposed Youth Criminal Justice Act Amendments

The Library of Parliament has published a Legislative Summary of Bill C-4: An Act to Amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act and to Make Consequential and Related Amendments to Other Acts:

"The purpose of the bill is to amend certain provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) to emphasize the importance of protecting society and to facilitate the detention of young persons3 who reoffend or who pose a threat to public safety. More particularly, the bill:"

• "establishes deterrence and denunciation as sentencing principles similar to the principles provided in the adult criminal justice system (clause 7);
• expands the case law definition of a violent offence to include reckless behaviour endangering public safety (clause 2);
• amends the rules for pre-sentence detention (also called pre-trial detention) to facilitate the detention of young persons accused of crimes against property punishable by a maximum term of five years or more (clause 4);
• authorizes the court to impose a prison sentence on a young person who has previously been subject to a number of extrajudicial sanctions (clause 8);
• requires the Crown to consider the possibility of seeking an adult sentence for young offenders 14 to 17 years of age convicted of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter or aggravated sexual assault (clauses 11 and 18);
• facilitates publication of the names of young offenders convicted of violent offences (clauses 20 and 24);
• requires police to keep a record of any extrajudicial measures imposed on young persons so that their criminal tendencies can be documented (clause 25);
• prohibits the imprisonment of young persons in adult correctional facilities (clause 21)."

"Bill C-4 also includes the essential aspects of the two features contained in the former Bill C-25:4 the addition of deterrence and denunciation as sentencing principles and, second, rules facilitating the pre-sentencing detention of young persons."

People who wish to follow the progress of the bill as it makes its way through the Houses of Parliament can do so on the LEGISinfo website.