Protecting our Communities from Drug Crimes
March 02, 2021
Ottawa Journal (March 07 – March 11, 2021)David Tilson, M.P. (Dufferin-Caledon)
Serious drug crimes have serious consequences for our communities and our families. Drug trafficking is the largest source of revenue for organized crime. Drugs bring violence and the use of weapons to our streets, endangering innocent by-standers. Furthermore, drug traffickers have targeted children. It’s no wonder Canadians are fed up.
Our Government is committed to doing what it takes to ensure our communities are safe. Since we were first elected to office, we’ve been working to safeguard Canadian families. We’ve passed key legislation, including laws targeting gun crimes and legislation to protect young Canadians from adult sexual predators. We have other important legislation before Parliament, as we work to end house arrest for violent criminals, deter property crimes, and stand up for victims of fraud.
Now we’re working to crack down on drug crime. Current sentences don’t always reflect the severity of these crimes or the impact they have on society. Inadequate penalties and the legacy of an unsuccessful soft-on-crime approach make it harder to protect our communities.
This is why we’re proposing tough, but fair legislation to require jail time for certain drug trafficking-related offences through our Government’s bill, the Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act. We’re working to give police and courts the tools they need to get and keep drug dealers off our streets. When drug dealers sell to our children, or sell drugs near schools and playgrounds, mandatory jail time is a necessary deterrent. When drug dealers operate their dangerous labs in residential neighbourhoods, police need the ability to get them out of our communities.
We’re also addressing, through this legislation, the inadequate penalties for dealers who sell date-rape drugs. Currently, the law considers this less serious than selling cocaine or heroin – that’s just not right. Our bill would update the law to make this abhorrent trafficking subject to the same penalties, including new mandatory jail time.
By imposing tougher penalties on drug dealers who commit these especially serious drug crimes and on dealers involved with organized crime, we can better protect law-abiding Canadians and their families.
Protecting our families from crime has always been a priority for Canadians and it has also been a priority of our Government from the day we took office. We’ve passed some significant legislation, but there is still much to be done. In particular, drug crimes have real consequences – consequences that shouldn’t be ignored or shrugged away. Instead, we should do everything we can to prevent them. This is why our Government is working to pass the Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act.