Watch the video on FacebookI had the chance to appear on Now You Know with Rob Snow to discuss my Private Member’s Bill, Bill C-240, which will be entering into second this Spring.
Take a moment to listen as I explain to Rob how our justice system must do more than punish, it must also heal. Holding individuals accountable for their actions is important but so is helping people break cycles of addiction and reoffending.
My Bill has a balanced approach that is tough on drug trafficking while recognizing that accountability must be paired with meaningful rehabilitation.
What Kelly says in this video
Automatic transcript; it may contain small errors.
and our next guest is hoping to advance legislation on addiction and drug crime and would like to see more done to promote her region of one as one of Canada's leading centers for high tech Kelly de Ritter is the conservative MP for the riding of Kitchener center thanks for joining us today thank you for having me uh very appreciative to be here so thank you so much yeah it's my pleasure you're looking forward to getting back to the house I am yes I'm very much looking forward to getting back to Ottawa and getting back in the house that's good be lots of snow and cold when you get there just as a as a warning if you have a nation's capital in a while bring your skates the canal might be open uh you have made though uh combating drug addiction and getting tougher on drug crime that's a real focus for you and I want to know what's behind that so it's actually the reason why I ran uh why I put my name forward is because of the drug crisis that we see all across our country I don't think that there's one riding in Canada that hasn't been impacted on some level of what we're seeing I know that it it's you know affecting my downtown core in Kitchener and that our businesses are struggling and you know there's a lot of impact that's happening with this drug crisis but beyond that I think that we need to focus on abstinence-based rehabilitation and that's why I brought forward my own private members bill that at least starts the conversation around that and if you wouldn't mind I'd like to share with what with my private member bill does yeah that's gonna be my next question what's in there good what are you proposing so what it is is that it introduces rehabilitation into incarceration this is what I can do on a federal level right now and so I'll just walk you through it a judge can prescribe rehabilitation whatever that might look like for an inmate it could be education mental health actual drug rehabilitation and then it's up to the inmate to choose whether or not to take that rehabilitation stream if they do then it's up to the federal government to provide the supports required for them to complete the rehabilitation that's been prescribed and then at the end of the sentence a parole can look at whether or not the inmate chose to take the rehabilitation path and so I you know I'm all about breaking cycles we need to break cycles and help people heal from addiction and what's causing addiction and I think this is a positive step forward in the fact that you have to be responsible for your actions and you know you've been incarcerated because of that but we're going to provide an opportunity for someone to potentially break the cycle in their life and lead a beautiful life on the other side of addiction or whatever's causing trauma to make the decisions they're making today what about the people who are profiting from the crisis drug dealers drug traffickers and what about what about those people how do you get tough on those people what do you what do you think yeah so there is a component actually in my in my private members bill that uh anybody trafficking fentanyl it's going to be an aggravated factor so that there's harsher sentencing for we want to punish you know the people that are are profiting off of this and we want to heal the people that are are kept in the clutches of addiction right now that's what I want to do my private members build this very good it's entering second reading so we'll be following that if you'll just hang on the line I do have some questions for you surrounding IT and uh high technology because uh you know the Kitchener at Waterloo long long-standing reputation of being one of the hubs in the country yeah innovation so I'd like to ask you a few questions about that uh Kelly DeRitter if you'll just hang on the line with us here Kelly DeRitter is with us today Kitchener Center Conservative MP I'm Rob Snow this is New Year's Radio
