Liberals vow change as Alberta man out on bail, charged with possession of 500K child abuse files

[00:00:00]Foothills families are shaken. A local man was charged with more than 500,000 pieces of child exploitation material and he was released. 10-year-old Grace asked me, "How can this man not be in jail? I do not feel safe playing outside with my friends. That isn't right."

[00:00:16]Okotoks families want to know why a man charged with such a heinous crime was released into the community.

[00:00:22]Conservatives offered a solution, jail not bail for serious offenses, but the Liberals rejected it. When will the Liberals fix the bail system that they broke so the Okotoks families can feel safe again?

[00:00:35]>> The Honorable Minister of Justice.

[00:00:38]>> Mr. Speaker, I thank my honorable colleague for raising this question on the floor of the House of Commons. These kinds of heinous behaviors have no place in Canada and the government of Canada has an opportunity to do something about it. I'm pleased to share that we expect this week we're going to have changes to Canada's Criminal Code. This includes changes that would make it impossible for conditional sentencing orders to be tied to charges impacting in crimes like sexual crimes against children. In addition, Mr. Speaker, last week this House voted on the Protecting Victims Act which puts in place a number of measures designed specifically to combat child sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation and abuse material.

[00:01:14]My hope is that these measures will become law expeditiously so communities benefit from this protection.