The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Reintroduce mandatory minimum sentences

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to a special Wednesday edition of The Brock Prince. I'm your host,

00:00:14.340 Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton-Cortha Lakes, with new content for you,

00:00:18.980 usually every single Tuesday at 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time, because yesterday was Remembrance Day,

00:00:24.380 we're doing it on Wednesday. So thank you to all that served, whether at home or abroad,

00:00:29.420 in peacetime or conflict. Thank you very much for your service, and lest we forget,

00:00:33.680 to those who have fallen in the service of their country. On today's show, we're talking about

00:00:38.700 the budget, $78 billion in the whole this fiscal year, my goodness. Also, the Supreme Court says

00:00:47.000 no mandatory minimums for child predators. To talk about this and so much more, we bring on

00:00:52.860 a little hint from the beginning, Larry Brock, the Member of Parliament for Brantford, Brant South,

00:00:57.300 Six Nations, also the Critic for Justice. Thanks for coming back on once again. 0.90

00:01:01.760 Thank you, Jamie. Always a pleasure to be back on The Blueprint.

00:01:04.720 You are the most requested person, the brockinator. They say, bring on the brockinator. 0.99

00:01:09.540 Happy to be here.

00:01:10.240 And we keep bringing you back on.

00:01:11.700 Thank you.

00:01:12.100 All right. So crazy week in Parliament last week. My goodness, what a week. So $78 billion in the

00:01:19.880 whole, says the Finance Minister. The Liberals are pretty proud of this number. So right now,

00:01:24.620 everything we collect, the government collects on GST, goes to pay interest on our debt. Every

00:01:30.920 single cent. And we're actually spending more on servicing that debt than we are transfers to the

00:01:37.620 provinces for health care. Make that make sense. I can't. It's absolutely shameful. They've doubled

00:01:44.580 up the projection of last year's fall economic update. We thought Justin Trudeau was bad in terms

00:01:52.340 of his spending appetite. But this is just a recipe for disaster. Nowhere did I read any aspect of how

00:02:01.340 they're going to make immediate changes to the lives of Canadians to make it more affordable for

00:02:07.460 them. There is nothing there. Pie in the Sky promises that somehow, somewhere down the road,

00:02:14.420 all of these changes that they're making and putting in all these billions of dollars is going to net

00:02:19.720 result some great economic opportunities for Canadians. Job opportunities, investment opportunities.

00:02:26.660 Again, it's all speculation. Canadians want relief now. This budget doesn't deliver.

00:02:33.180 We'll do a deeper dive into the budget next week. I believe we have Philip Lawrence coming on,

00:02:38.300 who's been analyzing the budget. Give us a bit more nuanced conversations in regards to where money

00:02:45.400 will be wasted, which there is so much. $78 billion. It still boggles my mind. $78 billion.

00:02:51.200 But one thing I wanted to talk to you about, I mentioned the firearms because I know you are

00:02:56.280 dog on a bone when it comes to that issue and protecting those legal licensed firearms owners

00:03:03.520 who are following the law. But the other thing I want to talk to you about is something that

00:03:07.320 kind of bubbled a little about a week or so ago was the Supreme Court decision saying that

00:03:13.660 mandatory minimums do not apply when it comes to child predators.

00:03:20.220 And I'm still incensed about that decision.

00:03:22.480 There's a headline there. Unbelievable.

00:03:24.160 Yes.

00:03:25.540 Like, third time for today. Make it make sense, Larry Brock.

00:03:31.240 I guess the only thing that can be made sense, this was a 5-4 split.

00:03:36.060 Setting aside the majority opinion, which I thought was completely illogical, they relied upon

00:03:43.720 an unrealistic, unreasonable hypothetical to make the point that a broad-based mandatory

00:03:53.520 minimum penalty for possession and accessing child pornography could leave vulnerable people,

00:04:00.640 depending on a scenario, subjected to cruel and unusual punishment under Section 12.

00:04:08.080 That was the majority's opinion. And in their hypothetical, they talked about an 18-year-old

00:04:15.360 and a 17-year-old, where the 18-year-old somehow acquires an image of a 17-year-old naked female

00:04:27.380 whose boyfriend had sent that picture to the 18-year-old.

00:04:32.660 Now, technically, I suppose that person could be charged with possession of child pornography.

00:04:39.680 It meets the definition in the code. And that was the hypothetical that the majority of this highest

00:04:47.160 court said it would be inappropriate for that individual to receive a one-year mandatory minimum

00:04:53.660 penalty in jail. That may or may not be correct. But what the court seems to forget is the high

00:05:02.660 degree of discretion that police services have and the discretion that Crown attorneys have before the

00:05:11.700 case even gets to court. So in that crazy, illogical, unreasonable scenario, it would be probably very

00:05:20.680 unlikely that the police would even charge a possession of child pornography. There may be other avenues

00:05:29.160 that they could pursue under the criminal code. But it also, even if they did proceed the police and it got to

00:05:36.360 the hands of a Crown attorney, such as my former self, you know, I would not take a look at the most serious

00:05:42.680 aspect of how to proceed under the criminal code and say, I'm going to proceed by indictment because I think

00:05:49.240 that 18-year-old should deserve one year in jail. We've got tools to minimize the impact that penalties 0.65

00:05:56.120 have in the code, completely forgotten by the Supreme Court of Canada. The minority offered a beautiful

00:06:03.000 dissenting opinion that talked about and criticized the unrealistic and unreasonable hypothetical that the

00:06:10.600 majority of the court did. Again, also reiterating that mandatory minimum penalties do not automatically

00:06:18.280 violate Section 12 of the Charter. And I know this Liberal government loves talking about the

00:06:23.720 dangerousness of mandatory minimum penalties. They need to be aware of the language coming from that court.

00:06:29.480 Absolutely. Let's queue up cut one where our leader Pierre Polyev mentions exactly what you had just

00:06:35.960 talked about. Let's play cut one.

00:06:38.040 Some of the reasoning from the justices was that they could see a scenario where two 18-year-olds

00:06:44.760 exchange images and then have a mandatory minimum imposed on them. I don't know what you make of

00:06:51.480 that reasoning. I think the Supreme Court needs to get away from these imaginary scenarios. The scenario

00:06:58.200 before them was two men in possession over a long period of time of hundreds of images and videos that

00:07:05.240 were made by torturing innocent children. And with that those facts in front of them, their conclusion

00:07:11.640 actually should have been that the sentence should have been met much more than the one year and nine months that the two

00:07:17.960 dirtbag offenders received. They should go away for a very long time. Frankly, if I had my way as a father, I would lock

00:07:23.960 them up and throw away the key. As a father, I agree 100%.

00:07:27.960 I'm a father. I'm a former Crown Prosecutor.

00:07:30.680 I prosecuted child exploitation law for a significant period of time. I have no sympathy for these dirtbags. 0.88

00:07:38.200 I call them pedophiles. It's absolutely deplorable anyone who has an interest and acquires and builds 0.98

00:07:47.800 on a collection of this filth. It is absolutely reprehensible as a society that we do not come down

00:07:55.560 as hard as we can on these pedophiles. Let's cut two because this is you in the house and I think it

00:08:04.120 is pretty eye-opening when you look at the government's response because they will say,

00:08:10.440 yeah, we agree with what we're saying, which is this is a horrible decision by the Supreme Court,

00:08:16.600 but they never follow it up with any action. It's basically to imply, well, like anything they do

00:08:22.920 that keeps going wrong, what are we going to do about it? We'll get to it. Yeah, maybe we'll find

00:08:27.320 someone who's in charge to fix this, right? So play cut two. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Supreme

00:08:32.440 Court struck down mandatory jail time for predators convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material. 0.55

00:08:38.840 That decision is disgusting. These offenders weren't caught with a few files. They had hundreds

00:08:44.040 of images and videos of children as young as three being tortured and abused. Yet instead of standing up

00:08:50.680 for victims, this Liberal government stays silent. Why is this Prime Minister more interested in protecting

00:08:56.120 pedophiles than protecting Canada's children from monsters? Child abusers should face the

00:09:02.280 toughest penalties under Canadian law. Should face the toughest penalties under Canadian law.

00:09:12.280 Why does it take yet another example of a very serious, heinous crime for this government to say,

00:09:20.280 yeah, these individuals deserve the strictest and harshest punishment and then do nothing about it?

00:09:27.160 That's the thing, right? They have been in power for 10 years. There has been no increase in the

00:09:35.080 penalty when it comes to child exploitation laws in the criminal code. If anything, they are doing their

00:09:42.760 best to limit its impact, to criticize the use of the notwithstanding clause, to be completely silent.

00:09:51.160 The fact that our Prime Minister was more interested in displaying photo ops of his Asian trip from last

00:10:01.640 Friday when that decision was, Friday, October the 31st, when that decision was released all weekend long,

00:10:09.480 all the following week. And it wasn't until a couple, three, four days ago, that we actually heard from

00:10:17.160 our Justice Minister, who actually finally put something out to comment on whether or not he would use the

00:10:25.880 notwithstanding clause. Apart from that, it was crickets. That is reprehensible. When you had our leader, you had

00:10:33.720 myself, you had other colleagues speaking out against this outrageous decision. And it spread like wildfire across the country,

00:10:42.840 because we had premiers as well calling this out for what it was, including the Justice Minister

00:10:50.040 in Sean Fraser's home province of Nova Scotia. So why does it take such a public outlash of disappointment

00:11:02.360 and concern and outrage before this government acknowledges that there is a problem that needs to be addressed?

00:11:09.320 Same thing can be said for bail. Yep. You know, we've been arguing about this for four and a half years.

00:11:14.760 And told we were, you know, we were crazy. We were crazy. It was in our minds. Yeah, everything's fine.

00:11:19.880 It's not the wild west out there, right? Exactly. Okay, it's crazy, illogical, liberal reasoning.

00:11:27.000 Yeah, it's almost like, I said it before, like, we bring up an issue because we're hearing it from our

00:11:32.920 constituents, and the liberal reaction is, no, it's not happening. You guys are off your rockers, right?

00:11:38.520 It's not happening. Then it gets to the point where it keeps happening, and more and more people

00:11:42.440 are cluing into, wait a second, this doesn't seem right. So the liberal response is, oh, okay,

00:11:47.000 well, maybe it's happening a little, but nothing to be concerned about. And then when it really heats

00:11:52.440 up, like the people being executed in the streets in York Region, just north of Toronto, they're like,

00:11:58.680 okay, it's happening, but don't talk about it. Yeah. Right? This is their usual game plan, all the time.

00:12:04.200 They never want to be proactive. They are completely reactive to fires and crises across

00:12:12.680 this country. That is not how a federal government should be operating. They should be, you know, moving,

00:12:20.120 I know government, you know, the old joke is, you know, government doesn't move very fast at all. And

00:12:25.320 in many cases, it's actually quite true. But they should be pushing their department to be reacting to

00:12:31.480 what is actually happening on the ground. And that is concern from constituents, whether they re-bail.

00:12:37.080 But in this case, Prime Minister Carney never issued mandate letters. No, that's true too.

00:12:42.920 To the Public Safety Minister and the Justice Minister. So they're literally flying by the seat of their

00:12:48.760 pants, reacting to crises that we amplify, that Canadians amplify, that stakeholders amplify across this country.

00:12:57.880 This, a classic example, this outrageous decision from the Supreme Court of Canada calls for decisive

00:13:04.920 leadership from the government. And that means re-establishing, sending out the clearest message

00:13:12.520 of all, that Parliament is supreme. I was just about to go there. Absolutely supreme.

00:13:17.480 That's why the notwithstanding clause is there. That's why the notwithstanding clause is there.

00:13:19.480 To every single court in this country, including the Supreme Court of Canada. We don't need activism.

00:13:27.640 We need them to follow the laws that you and I pass. Because if we have a bunch of unelected judges

00:13:33.880 making these kinds of decisions, what do they need Parliament for, right? Precisely.

00:13:38.120 This is why Parliament, the law-making body in this country, has to have the final say because we are

00:13:46.360 then representative of the people and the will of the people. We are. And the people are outraged at this decision.

00:13:55.160 And the fact that we have our Justice Minister, probably the most important portfolio in all of government,

00:14:04.520 completely misconstruing the tests under the Supreme Court of Canada's use of the notwithstanding clause.

00:14:11.160 He actually came out numerous times saying he wasn't prepared to override the Charter with the use of the

00:14:20.280 notwithstanding clause. He completely forgets that section 33 is part of the Charter. He's not overriding anything.

00:14:28.600 He's using a tool in the tool chest. Precisely, which he refuses to do.

00:14:33.240 Yes, because I think based on C5, the piece of legislation that passed a number of years ago that

00:14:39.480 reduced sentences for a whole whack of pretty serious crimes, including urging house arrest at some point,

00:14:47.160 which, you know, the drug dealers getting house arrest for selling drugs in their home,

00:14:51.080 and then they get to, you know, sell more drugs. But I think this goes along the lines which they want,

00:14:56.840 right? They seem to want to go light on criminals, but go heavy on those who follow the law in the

00:15:03.800 terms of law-abiding firearms owners, among many others. In addition to putting on limitations to

00:15:11.480 freedom of expression. Yes. Censorship laws that we have to deal with in this country. Absolutely.

00:15:15.880 That's the flavor of pretty much of the day. And it's a priority that we've seen in numerous bills.

00:15:21.960 So they fund- They'll take every opportunity to restrict our constitutional rights.

00:15:26.680 Oh, absolutely. While funding the media outlets of their choice. Right.

00:15:31.800 Right? CBC, what are they up to? $1.2 billion, something like that. Then, of course,

00:15:35.960 you have the $400 million to the parliamentary precinct. And then the budget gave them another $150

00:15:40.440 million. Because they were so short. Because they want Canada to be part of Eurovision,

00:15:46.040 whatever that means. I'm not even sure what that means. But obviously, it's a pet project because

00:15:51.160 Carney's obviously not just a Canadian, he's a European as well. Well, I'm assuming there's friends

00:15:56.200 that need to, you know, get their fill too. But unbelievable. Yeah. Pretty much out of time,

00:16:02.520 the guests get the last word. As you know, because you've been on here this show a million times,

00:16:06.520 the floor is yours. Let's restore sanity in this country. Let's put these dirtbag pedophiles away, 0.86

00:16:14.760 as our leader said, for as long as we can. Throw away the key because that's what Canadians want. 0.99

00:16:22.360 These are sick individuals that need to rot in jail. And it's also important that we continue to 0.96

00:16:29.640 to impress and establish as loudly as we can that Parliament is supreme, not the courts.

00:16:37.720 Larry Brock, I love it when you come on the show. Thank you much.

00:16:40.920 The Member of Parliament for Brantford, Brant South, Six Nations, also the Shadow Minister,

00:16:46.760 or Critic for Justice. Thank you.

00:16:48.280 Always appreciate when the Brockinator comes on the show. Appreciate your time as well on this special

00:16:53.480 Wednesday edition. Don't forget, new content for you next Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time.

00:16:58.840 Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share this program. Tell your friends too.

00:17:02.840 Get it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there.

00:17:07.720 Until next week, remember low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.

00:17:28.840 So, of course.

00:17:32.340 .

00:17:35.560 .

00:17:36.840 .

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - November 12, 2025

Reintroduce mandatory minimum sentences

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