More Young Offenders Act stuff

The House of Commons spent almost all of yesterday talking about C-7.  I suppose I should sit down and actually read through this stuff, especially as it probably has some relation to youth rights, but so far, I just haven't gotten around to doing that.  Without taking a position on other things he said, I would like to post a quote from Ken Epp (Elk Island, Canadian Alliance):

I do not need a law to tell me that I shall not murder.  I have that law written in my heart.  It was taught to me in my youth.  It has been reinforced through my whole life.  If I lived in a country in which there was no law against murder, I still would not murder anyone.  I do not need a law which tells me not to rape a woman.  I will not do it in any case.

Then one could ask this.  If we in Canada are such wonderful people that we would not do these things, why should we have the law?  The law has one purpose only.  It is to restrain those who do not have a built in law.  That is the purpose of the law.  People who would not do it anyway do not need the law.  However, for those who would, the law becomes a restraining power.  It ensures that those people who would offend the lives others, their personal safety or their property shall be restrained.  That is the purpose.

Also in yesterday's Hansard:  two more petitions against embryonic stem cell research.  See comments below.

[More Young Offenders Act stuff]