Liberal Incompetence, More Crime in our Streets
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Summary
On today's show, we discuss Canada's decision to recognize the Palestinian state, and why it distracts from other important issues facing Canadians. To talk about this and much more, we bring on newly elected MP for Vaughan-Woodbridge, Michael Gouliamin.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm
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your host, Jamie Schmell, Member of Parliament for Halliburton-Cawortha Lakes, with new content
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for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,
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and share this program. Tell your friends they can download it on platforms like CastBox,
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iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. On today's show, Canada recognizes the
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Palestinian state. Interesting enough. Also, crime continues out of control across Canada. To talk
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about this and much, much more, we bring on the newly elected Member of Parliament for Vaughan
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Woodbridge, Michael Goulliamin. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks very much for having me, Jamie.
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All right, let's start with something that just happened a few days ago. Over the weekend,
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Mark Carney, the Prime Minister, announced that Canada is going to recognize the Palestinian state.
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The issue with that, I think, that has raised most eyebrows is the fact that a few months ago,
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Carney said there would be conditions before Canada recognizes a Palestinian state. And to my knowledge,
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none of those conditions have been met. None of those conditions have been met. I mean,
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I think in the first instance, we had Hamas completely surrendering, denouncing violence.
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You had the Palestinian state itself committing to a two-state solution. And then, of course,
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the return of the hostages, the unconditional return of the hostages. And none of them have been met.
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And I think, frankly, Jamie, it really does speak to the Prime Minister, who seems to be flip-flopping on a
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lot of issues, or making statements and then changing his direction with little or no rationale
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as to why he's doing so. But more importantly, I think that distracts from some of the key issues
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facing Canadians, like affordability, like crime, which I believe we're talking about today.
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Yeah, we're going to get into that in just a second. You're right. It does distract.
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I also, my problem here is, you know, when they say Canada now recognizes the Palestinian state,
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my issue, I know the government's signing, I get that. But at the same time, we never had a debate
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in Parliament around this. We never actually had a vote on this in Parliament to see what the will
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of the House actually is. And it might pass. It probably will at the NDP and the Greens,
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probably. But we never had that opportunity, which I think is sad, especially when all the
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headlines are Canada recognizes. And especially when it sort of, you know, diverts from our
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longstanding policy on this key issue, critical issue of making sure that there is a two-state
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solution. And I think it's indicative of some of the obstructionism we've been seeing on issues like
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crime, where opportunity for debate is really not paramount in this Parliament, right? We've noticed
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that they were trying to rush bills to committee relatively recently and criticizing our party
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for obstructionism, when in fact, you know, we're just trying to give legislation the debate that's
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required in the House, right? And I think that's what Canadians expect.
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Well, I would hope so. But I think we pointed this out another few episodes ago. And I don't think many
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people realize this fact. Prior to June, which we only sat for a month, we had not sat January,
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February, March, April, most of May. Right. Like, there's a lot of fires burning. There's a lot of
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issues that need to be discussed. No committees were even functioning. No committees, right? Like,
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there was a large chunk of 2025 where Parliament, to your point, was not even a factor in a lot of
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these discussions and decisions. That's right. And I mean, Parliament is the cornerstone of our
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democracy, in a sense, right? It's the spirit of debate. It's the place where we can discuss key
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contentious issues and, you know, try and find consensus with the other parties in Parliament,
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which represent the voice of Canadians. So I think it's very important that Parliament gets its say on
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these issues, and they're not just heavy handed from above. Let's go now to a more domestic issue,
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and something that is ravaging, I think, every community across the country. But
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yours in particular, York region in particular, it is unbelievable what's going on in your area.
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We have a, let's see if we can get the screenshot up here, a father executed in front of his kids
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in a home invasion. Yes. Alim Faruqi, you know, a prominent member of the Amadea community
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in Vaughan, you know, very, very much a community figure, a hero, right? He was executed for defending
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his children, as it's been made to understand. And I think this just speaks volume to the lawlessness
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that's going on in our communities across the country, but specifically here in Vaughan,
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where we've seen a very dramatic rise in violent crime.
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And it doesn't help that the Liberals continue to downplay this. They keep saying there'll be
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legislation on bail reform, a problem they created in the first place with a couple pieces of
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legislation we'll talk about in a second. But, you know, comments from Sean Frazier,
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the Justice Minister, that, you know, the Conservatives are making it seem like the Wild West.
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But for that gentleman and his family, I'm pretty sure it feels that way. And let's go to the map.
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Let's go to the next slide here. This is insane. This is York region. So in Ontario,
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just north of Toronto, look at this. What is going on?
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It's, like I said, a dramatic increase in crime. I have some statistics here. We'll speak to York
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region. Violent crime up is from 2020 to today, 55%. Firearms up 130% extortion, 338%. Sexual assault,
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76%. Homicides up 29%. Carjackings up 305%. And home invasions up 82% in York region. I mean,
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it's very alarming. And to just sort of circle back to the Aleem Faruqi incident,
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my colleague Anna Roberts and I, we attended the vigil for Aleem. And the consequence of this,
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you know, is, you know, this terrible tragedy for the family, for the children of that family,
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and also the community at large. Because when we're walking through this vigil,
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people, like they have this, this like look on their face of, you know, they're losing trust and
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faith in the system. And they expect politicians to act. Like the message to us was do something.
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Enough talking. Do something. So, I mean, it's a very serious issue. And the Liberals really need
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to take this more seriously. Because right now, it kind of seems like they're deflecting. Just the
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other day, we heard in the House that we're using this for fundraising purposes. Tell that to the
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family of Aleem Faruqi. Exactly. And all the other people who are suffering that continue to get
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victimized, including yourself. Your car almost knocked away or drove away on its own.
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You know what, in August, I, 7am, I get a knock on my door from my neighbor. And he says,
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3.30 in the morning last night, someone tried to see your vehicle. I happened to be looking outside
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the window. And an individual walked up with a crowbar between our two cars. So, I went and grabbed
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the alarms for the keys and set off his car alarm. And by the time they left, like they ran away once
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the alarms went, they had my window broken, the glove box out, and it was in the process of being
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rewired. So, you know, thank you to the neighbor. But it just, again, speaks to the lawlessness.
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Because, you know, in my, I'll speak to Vaughn specifically, and in my riding, in Vaughn-Woodbridge,
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everybody knows somebody who's had multiple attempts of their vehicle being stolen, which is,
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it's crazy for a community. Well, judging about that map, absolutely. Let's go to a few more of these.
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These. So, again, more home invasion. I can't tell if that's an axe or a sledgehammer or something
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else, but coming right through the front door. Yes. And I think we need to give credit to law
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enforcement. Law enforcement is doing their best with the tools that they have. They were able
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to arrest three people that they believe are directly connected to two armed home invasions.
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Unfortunately, this isn't the incident with Alim Faruqi, but two other home invasions in the area. So,
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they're trying to step up their game, and we really need to give them the legislative tools
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to make sure these criminals are behind bars. 100%. We need to stop the revolving justice system
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that we seem to have. This door keeps swaying back and forth, right? The criminals are arrested.
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They're processed out on bail. And we mentioned two pieces of legislation, C-75 and C-5, both of which
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have made bail easier to get. And if, in fact, you are convicted, well, they'll see five means you
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don't serve as much time as you probably should. And I think what we're seeing here is a, you can see
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the, like, sort of a philosophical battle between liberals and conservative on justice here. On the
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one hand, you have liberals who really lead with this, especially under Lamedi, who introduced a lot
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of this legislation, this principle of restraint, right? And from C-75, kind of highlighting this
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rehabilitation aspect of the criminal justice system, saying, you know, really what the issue
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is are, like, the systemic underpinnings that these people face, and we need to rehabilitate them.
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Therefore, they have to be released at the earliest convenience. And when you see that played out in
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legislation, you get bills like C-5 that reduce the mandatory minimum sentences, and C-75, which,
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you know, want judges to release accused as quickly as possible, that principle of restraint.
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On the other hand, you have, you know, sort of our view of this, which is more that the purpose of
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justice is to, A, protect the society at large, B, it's about the victims of crime, and C, there's
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people, individuals have agency, right? It's not to excuse young offenders and things like that,
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separate, right? What we're talking about here is, you have instances, remember, in Wellen,
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the sex offender, out on bail, committing sex offenses. This is, like, this is disgusting.
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It's sickening, you know, and these people should not be out on bail. You have police departments
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across this country saying that the real problem that they're seeing on the ground is that repeat
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offenders are ending up out on the streets and committing more and more crime. So, you know,
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my view on this has always been, when it comes to justice, you need to, what's the best way to word
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this? What you're trying to do is deter crime. You're, you have punishment for the morality of
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defense, of the offense. So, severe violent crime should come with mandatory minimums. It should come
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with conditions around bail if they're repeat offenders. And because the primary function of any
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government of any state is the protection of its citizens. This is its key role. This is sort of my
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conception of justice. And certainly, as a member of this federal parliament, it's something I'm going
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Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you on that percent. So, you mentioned David Lamedi, who was a former
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justice minister, member of parliament from the Montreal area, did not run in the last election.
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Marco Mendicino is another one. He had the public safety file as well, from Toronto. Both,
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both, in this government, in these liberals, you fail upwards. So, they found themselves inside the
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prime minister's office advising Mark Carney. So, you know, the problems continue. Now, you have
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the current public safety minister, Gary Nassangari, who over the weekend was caught on a hot mic,
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so to speak, if you call it that, basically downplaying this whole gun conference, this firearm
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confiscation. And his comments were just incredible. They said the silent part out loud. I'm going to
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get into another show about this specifically. I don't want to go too far down this. But this is
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a problem with the Liberal Party itself, because you have all these leftovers from the Justin Trudeau
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era, and now you have more Justin Trudeau policy.
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That's right. And I think it speaks broadly to exactly that, that sort of overarching,
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like, progressive, very, like, liberal ideology when it comes to things like justice. And we see
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this in other areas of policy, like energy and other items. But specifically, when it relates to
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justice, you're seeing this played out in real time. And we're seeing the consequence of that policy.
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Like, it's got to be logical, and it's got to be effective, right? And I think that's why,
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you know, we're going to be introducing, I believe, early this week, that private members bill,
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NPR Pencana, our colleague, the Jail Not Bail Act, to try and correct some of these wrongs.
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Yeah, hopefully the government listens. Let's play this video too, because this is caught
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on security surveillance, just more things happening in our communities that I don't think many people
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can understand. They can't, again, people want the crime to stop. I think it's important for us to
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realize that we have to continually remind people that it was government legislation that got us to
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this point. C5, C75 gets us to this point, right? This is how we got here. How we fix it, what you
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just talked about, our friend and colleague, our Pencana, Jail Not Bail, stop this revolving door
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Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a very important piece of legislation. I mean,
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the one thing that really strikes me is, if we recall from our election, part of our 100-day plan
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was criminal justice, bail reform was like one of the key priorities. So instead, government goes on
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summer vacation, no committees recalled, no legislation passed. We have all a huge spike in
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incidents. And why? Like, why are we waiting until October to introduce this law? It's like there's no
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urgency with this liberal government, right? Usually I say they, because it doesn't affect
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them, right? It's affecting other people. So we don't really pay attention to it. But even the
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last parliament, the justice minister at the time, Arif Varani, he had his car stolen a few times,
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right? It was the government's car, not his, so he probably didn't care. But at the same time,
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usually it doesn't affect them. That's why they don't move as fast as they probably should have.
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So when we look at this Jail Not Bail Act, what does it do? One, it removes this principle of
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restraint. The other item is it creates a new category of major crimes and with a reverse onus.
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So major crimes like gun crime, extortion, home invasions, et cetera, which is really important.
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And does bail reform. So, you know, people with, on priors, especially for serious major crime
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categories, aren't eligible for bail, especially if they, I believe it was if they didn't commit a,
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or if they've committed a crime within the last 10 years. And then the last category is people who
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have priors are not able to be guarantors for anybody who's seeking bail, which I think is very
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commonsensical, very appropriate piece of legislation, especially given everything that we're seeing
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here. A hundred percent. We're pretty much out of time. But as you know, the guests get the last
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word, the floor is yours. Well, I just, you know, I encourage people to really look into our Jail Not
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Bail Act and look into other private member bills that we're putting forward in this session.
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This is us trying to work in the spirit of collaboration with the government, take our ideas.
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We encourage you, adopt them, vote for these issues, because at the end of the day, what we're trying
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to do here is, you know, make life better for Canadians. We want to instill trust in our
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government and our democracy and society. We hope the government's on board with us during this
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process. So thank you. Michael, congratulations on your election. Well deserved. You were working
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hard at it. I wish you the best of luck and I appreciate the opportunity to have you on the show.
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Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here. I'm looking forward to our next discussion.
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Thank you for your time. Michael Guglielmin, Member of Parliament for Vaughn Woodbridge. Thank you for your time as
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well. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and share this program. We have new content for you
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every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. Until next week, remember, low taxes, less government,