Bill 2, The Protection Against Family Violence Amendment Act, 2011

March 16, 2011

Mr. Anderson: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I’m going to speak in favour of Bill 2, the Protection Against Family Violence Amendment Act, 2011. It’s an important bill, I think, that adds stiff penalties for those who ignore protective orders issued by the courts. I think that we can all agree in this House that actions cer-ainly speak louder than words, especially with people who have broken the law. When a court issues an order, it must be respected, with no ifs, ands, or buts about it, because it’s the law.

I’d like to commend the hon. member – as I always say in this House, one of my favourite members of the Legislature – the good doctor from Calgary-Nose Hill, for bringing this forward. It’s a very good act, and I really liked the way that this member went about it, too, Mr. Chair. It deserves recognition that he always goes out of his way to do a briefing with members of the opposition or to answer any questions that we may have about the bill. At least, that’s been my experience. I find that it’s just very refreshing. I actually feel that this member takes very seriously bringing a bill to the Legislature. He only brings bills forward that he believes in and that he thinks are appropriate, not just ones that are stuck on his desk by some minister. I really do appreciate that very much. He’s a good example of a parliamentarian.

Back to Bill 2. As I said earlier, when a court issues an order, Mr. Chair, it needs to be respected, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The situation as it stands with regard to this is certainly not good enough with regard to the penalties for those who ignore protective orders issued by the courts. If a fearful wife and mother, a fearful woman, a fearful anybody receives the protection order from the court, there are almost no meaningful consequences for ignoring the order. This is unconscionable at the present time. A violator can be found in contempt of court, but there are no specified penalties for that contempt of court. It’s a civil offence.

Someone that intimidates children – it has been well documented – receives nothing more than, really, a slap on the wrist. This clearly is not good enough. It’s obvious that if you want to protect children in general, you take family violence seriously, and you do something about it. Based on police-reported data, when a child is physically or sexually assaulted, it’s by someone they know 85 per cent of the time. I just shake my head when I hear statistics like this, when I learn of statistics like this. This is based on police data and investigated cases.

Based on our most recent data, from 2007, 53,000 children and youth were victims of assault. Has it gone up in 2010? It probably has. Thirty per cent of those perpetrators were family members in this province. The message is clear. The family home must be a safe place, a refuge from harm. Usually in the vast majority of circumstances parents are caring. They’re loving. They would do anything to protect their children. Their rights to be parents and their ability to be parents are not in any way being questioned by this bill, but there is that percentage – whether it’s 1 or 2 per cent, it’s far too large – where the abuse happens.

Tragically, sometimes it’s sexual abuse, which is just beyond anybody’s comprehension in this House. Oftentimes it’s verbal abuse and physical, violent abuse. It does happen, and many of us, I think, have seen what happens. I don’t think many of us have seen it actually happening in front of our eyes although I’m sure some of us have. But all of us have seen and known victims of the abuse, and it is just heart wrenching to see.

If someone is brave enough to say, “Enough; that’s gone too far,” to step forward and get a protective order, it must have force and real consequences for disobeying it. I generally like the penal-ties included in this bill. I like mandatory minimum sentences. Surprise, surprise. Albertans need assurance that broken laws have real punishments, real consequences. Wrist slaps don’t count. They’re not good enough.

A first offence will allow a judge to levy a fine of $5,000 or up to 90 days in jail. On this I would like to see a mandatory mini-mum. All I see is a maximum. On the second offence there’s a minimum jail sentence of 14 days, for a third offence 30 days. Although these penalties are a step in the right direction, I think they still could be stronger. I do think that we’re moving in the right direction here, but these are very serious. I think that when these protective orders are violated, the consequences should be very serious in virtually all cases, with very little discretion given.

Although these penalties are a step in the right direction, I think they could be stronger. Someone that repeatedly ignores court orders, for example, should be treated harshly, especially when it comes to family violence. I really do like the upper-end punishments in this bill. A second offence could land you in prison for 18 months. Very good. A third would see someone behind bars for 24 months. This is very good. We all know that violence, if left unchecked, will escalate. A threat will lead to an assault, and an assault can lead to a death or a child being exploited and harmed and victimized for all time that they’re on this Earth.

Forty-one per cent of child and youth homicides were commit-ted by a family member. It’s usually the people children trust most. It’s usually parents. It’s usually, unfortunately, the father or the male figure in the house when it does happen. Again, I want to repeat that the vast majority of fathers out there would step in front of a train for their kids if it meant taking care of them and keeping them from harm. But for some reason there’s an insidious population out there that feels that they have the right to abuse the people that are closest to them.

Another 27 per cent of these acts were committed by someone the minor knew, and that’s a big warning for all parents out there to make sure that they are aware of who their children are associating with. Whose house are they going to? Who are their friends? Who are the parents of their friends? We need to be care-ful with that because it’s incredible how sneaky and conniving some of these individuals are. That’s not to say that we need to be suspicious of everyone. We just have to do our due diligence and make sure our children are hanging around good people.

I think this government could be doing more on the family violence file, though. There is more that they could do. For example – and this is a big one for us in the Wildrose – the government has dragged its feet on proclaiming the Mandatory Reporting of Child Pornography Act, that the hon. Member for Calgary-Fish Creek proposed. It was passed last year. We have begged this government over and over and over again to put a date for implementing the bill into effect and to announce it, to make it not only law but completely in force. There has not been any action on it, and that is unacceptable. The Mandatory Reporting of Child Pornography Act: there’s just no acceptable reason why we haven’t proclaimed that bill. Surely, the members opposite and the members running for leader of the PC Party and so forth will find it in their hearts to proclaim this bill and make it mandatory to report some of the most disgusting abuse that happens in our society.

There is also a motion before the House, Motion 503, that urges the government to create a task force to reduce the exploitation of children. The motion isn’t a government motion; it’s a private member’s motion. I think it’s great that that member is putting the motion forward, but this isn’t being put forward by the Minister of Children and Youth Services. It would be good if that minister would look into the creation of that task force, and I urge her, as someone who I know obviously cares very much about the protec-tion of children, to do that.

I like the progress that this bill will make, but it’s obvious to me and to Albertans that the safety of families needs to be a higher priority of this government. It’s not that they’re not doing any-thing on it, but they’re not doing enough. I assure Albertans that to ensure the protection of children and youths in any place that they are is an absolute priority for the Wildrose caucus and will be a priority of our government if we are elected thus in the next election.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.