The Honourable Stockwell Day along with Conservative Party candidates Dianne Watts (South Surrey-White Rock), Harpreet Singh (Surrey Newton), and Sucha Thind (Surrey Centre) today announced that a re-elected Conservative government will increase funding to help steer youth away from gangs and will create a formal list of criminal organizations to expedite prosecutions.
“Criminal gangs are a serious threat to Canadian communities and Canadian values,” said Harpreet Singh. “They prey on young people, steal private property, traffic illegal drugs and commit 20 percent of Canada’s murders.”
To crack down on criminal gangs, a re-elected Conservative government would increase funding for the Youth Gang Prevention Fund. The fund, launched by the Conservative government in 2006, seeks to reduce youth gang violence by reaching out to at-risk youth.
A re-elected Conservative government will also create a formal list of organized criminal gangs and eliminate the inefficient requirement for the Crown to prove repeatedly in individual cases that a specific gang is a criminal organization.
Noting that the Opposition parties would not make fighting crime a priority, Dianne Watts reviewed the Conservative government’s strong record of cracking down on guns, gangs and organized crime, including:
Introducing mandatory minimum penalties for offences related to gangs, guns and drugs
- Making all murders connected to organized crime automatically first-degree murder
- Toughening penalties for auto theft and trafficking property obtained by crime
“Justin Trudeau’s sole criminal justice priority is to change the law to allow the sale of marijuana in corner stores,” said Ms. Watts. “Justin just doesn’t understand the importance of cracking down on organized criminal gangs.”
“Thomas Mulcair is a career politician leading an NDP whose dangerous criminal justice policy would make our communities less safe,” said Ms. Watts. “Mulcair and the NDP oppose our actions to increase penalties for gangs and dangerous criminals because they wrongly put the so-called rights of criminal ahead of the rights of victims.”
