Private Member: Government

Government Bills Dept: Since Sunday, four private member s bills that make changes to criminal and corrections law have been publicly backed by the government as good additions to its tough-on-crime agenda, according to The Star. Another private member s bill on Wednesday moved toward the final stage of Commons approval, to loud applause from Conservative benches. Bill C-304 would repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act and prevent rights claims based on hate speech from being brought before human rights commissions and oTTAWA The federal Conservative government is shifting the way lawmaking is done. Private member s bills which get less legislative analysis or parliamentary debate than government bills are the new black. Here s what the latest batch would do: create a new criminal offence for recruiting young people into gangs, levy $5,000 fines or jail terms up to 10 years for wearing a mask or face paint at a riot five years if it s an unlawful assembly , give federal prison officials more authority to dismiss inmate grievances by deeming them vexatious or frivolous, and set up a forced debt recovery scheme for inmates who win money from lawsuits against the Crown to require payment of outstanding child support, restitution orders or victim surcharges. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.